- . .. 3 I 



W:%A>W$l 






J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 



J(j, lva P* ----- fopgngW Jfo. 

m vh'A v\«H ♦ 



* UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. | 



>eq, c - 



ON 



THE DUTIES 



YOUNG MEN 



TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OP 

SILVIO PELLICO, 
H 

AUTHOR OF "MY PRISONS," " FRANCE3CA DA RAMTNI," ETC., 



R. A. TAIN. 

WITH SELECTIONS FROM 

JCatortraire's ^ttitxs to ffoung gjpUn. 



• Justicia enira perpetua est et immortalis." 

Lib. SapientiaB, i 15. 



NEW YORK : 
D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. 

MONTREAL I 

COR. NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVTER STS. 

1872. 






■v 



X 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



This discourse, addressed to an indi- 
vidual, I publish, in the hope that it 
may be useful to youth in general. 

Here is no scientific treatise, here are 
no abstruse investigations concerning 
our duties. In my mind, there is no 
need of ingenious arguments to prove 
the obligation of being upright and re- 
ligious. He who finds not such proofs 
in his own conscience, will never find 
them in a book. Here is a simple 
enumeration of the duties which man 
encounters through life, an invitation to 



IV AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

ponder tliem, and to adhere to them 
with generous constancy. 

I have purposed avoiding all pomp 
of ideas and of style. The subject 
seemed to me to demand the purest 
simplicity. 

Youth of my country, I offer you 
this little treatise, with an intense de- 
sire that it may stimulate you to the 
practice of virtue, and tend to render 
you happy. 



CONTENTS. 



OHAPTEB 




PAGE 


I. 


Necessity and Nature of Duty , 


. 9 


n. 


On the Love of Truth 


. 12 


in. 


Religion 


. 16 


IV, 


Quotations • 


. 20 


V. 


Resolution regarding Religion 


. 26 


VI. 


Philanthropy and Charity 


. 29 


YII. 


On the Esteem of Man . 


. 34 


vin. 


Love of Country 


. 40 


IX. 


The True Patriot . 


• 46 


X. 


Filial Affection 


• 48 


XI. 


Respect towards Aged Persons an 


d our 




Forefathers .... 


. 54 


XII. 


Fraternal Affection . 


'. 60 


XIII. 


Friendship .... 


. 64 


XIV. 


On Studies . . . • 


.. 70 


XV. 


Choice of a State 


. 76 


XVI. 


Of checking Excessive Solitude 


. 78 


XVII. 


Repentance and Amendment . 


. 82 


XVIH. 


Celibacy 


. 86 


XIX. 


On Honor paid to Women . 


. 92 


XX. 


The Dignity of Love . . 


. 97 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE 

XXI. Blamable Amours . . . .100 
XXII. Of Renpect towards Single Females and 

Wives of others . 105 

XXIII. Matrimony 110 

XXIV. Paternal Love — Love towards Infancy 

and Childhood .... 117 

XXV. On Riches 121 

XXVI. Respect towards Misfortune — Benefi- 
cence 127 

XXVII. Esteem of Knowledge . . .134 

XXVIII. Refinement of Manners . . .139 

XXIX. Gratitude 143 

XXX. Humility, Meekness, Pardon . . 146 

XXXI. Courage 152 

XXXII. Exalted idea of Life, and strength of 

mind to meet Death . . .154 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

I. Humility 161 

II. Female Society 164 

III. Moderation in Work — Flavigny . . . 166 

IV. Upon Steadfastness in Conviction . .169 
V. Bad Books— Separation from Friends . .171 

VI. Bad Company 175 



ON THE 

DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

NECESSITY AND NATURE OF DUTY. 

From tlie idea of duty, no one may 
well emancipate himself, and be insen- 
sible to the importance of that idea. 
Duty is inevitably inherent in our being. 
Of this conscience warns us when we 
have scarcely attained the use of reason ; 
this it urges with still greater force as 
our reason increases, and always with 
renewed energy in proportion to the 
expansion of that faculty. 

In like manner all external things 
teach us this truth, inasmuch as all 
things are governed by a law, harmo- 
nious and eternal — all have one and the 



10 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

same destiny, namely, to show forth the 
wisdom, and execute the will of that 
Being who is the cause and end of all. 

Man likewise has a destiny, a nature; 
he must needs be what he should be, 
else he is not esteemed by others, he is 
not esteemed by himself, he is not 
happy. It is in his nature to aspire to 
happiness, to feel, to experience, that 
happiness cannot be attained otherwise 
than through virtue, w T hich means the 
practice of all that is required for our 
well-being, in accordance with that of 
others, in accordance with the system of 
the universe, with the intentions of the 
Creator. 

If in our moments of passion we are 
tempted to designate as our well-being 
that which is in opposition to that of 
others, in opposition to good order ; we 
cannot, nevertheless, persuade ourselves 
to that effect, conscience proclaims the 
contrary. Our passion once calmed, all 
that was opposed to the good of others, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 11 

to good order, invariably inspires us 
with horror. 

The performance of duty is so essential 
to our well-being, that even sufferings 
and death, which seem to be our most 
immediate ills, become a source of de- 
light to the generous man, who suffers 
and dies with the intention of benefiting 
his fellow-man, or of accomplishing the 
adorable decrees of the Omnipotent. 

Man, being as he ought to be, is 
consequently the definition of duty, and 
at the same time that of happiness. This 
truth religion sublimely expounds, when 
she saj's that he was made to the image 
of God. His duty and his happiness 
consist in being as that image, not de- 
siring to be aught else, endeavoring to 
be good, because God is good, and has 
awarded him as a destiny to aspire to 
the practice of all virtues, and become 
like Himself. 



12 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 



CHAPTEE II. 

ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH 

Our first duty is the love of truth, and 
faith in that virtue. 

Truth is God ; to love truth and love 
God are one and the same. 

Strengthen yourself, my friend, in 
your desire after truth, and suffer not 
yourself to be dazzled by the false elo- 
quence of those melancholy and insanfs 
sophists, who endeavor to cast over all 
things a veil of discouraging doubt. 

Reason is of no avail, but is, on the 
contrary, pernicious, when employed as 
a weapon against truth, so as to discredit 
it, so as to sustain ignoble suppositions : 
when deducing fatal consequences from 
the ills with which life is beset, it denies 
that life is a boon ; when enumerating 
some apparent incongruities in the uni- 
verse, it refuses to admit the existence 
of order ; when impressed by the palpa- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 13 

bility and the deatli of the body, it 
shrinks from the belief of another life 
all spiritual and immortal ; when it de- 
signates as a dream the distinction be- 
tween vice and virtue ; when it will regard 
man as a mere, animal, having nothing 
of divine. 

If man and nature were things thus 
vile and abominable, why waste time in 
philosophizing ? Better so — make an 
end of oneself; reason could not counsel 
otherwise. 

Since conscience bids all to live (the 
exception of some weak in intellect is 
inconclusive), since we live to aspire 
after good, since we feel that the virtue 
of man consists, not in abasing, in con- 
founding himself with the worm, but in 
ennobling, in elevating himself towards 
God, it is evident there is no other sane 
use of reason, save that which inspires 
man with an exalted idea of his possible 
dignity, and impels him to attain it. 

This principle recognized, let us boldly 



14 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

banish scepticism, cjoiicism, and all de- 
grading philosophy ; let us firmly resolve 
to believe in the existence of truth, of 
beauty, of goodness. In order to believe 
we must wish to believe, we must ardent- 
ly love truth. 

Such love alone can give energy to the 
soul ; he who takes pleasure in remaining 
in his doubts enervates his soul. 

To the faith in all upright principles 
add the purpose of ever being the em- 
bodied expression of truth in all your 
words, in all your actions. 

The conscience of man knows no re- 
pose save in truth. He who utters an 
untruth, should he even remain undis- 
covered, bears his punishment within 
him ; he feels he betrays a duty and 
degrades himself. 

In order to avoid contracting the vile 
habit of lying, there is no other means 
than to resolve never to lie. If we make 
a single exception to this resolution, are 
we not apt to find pretexts for two, for 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 15 

fifty, in a word, for an infinity of excep- 
tional cases ? 

And even so it happens that so many 
become by degrees horribly prone to 
deception, to exaggeration, and even to 
calumny. 

Men are most addicted to falsehood 
during the most corrupt times, when 
reigns a general distrust — distrust even 
between father and son, with an inces- 
sant and immoderate recourse to pro- 
testations, to adjurations, and to perfidy ; 
when amidst the diversity of opinions 
concerning politics, religion, and some- 
times even literature alone, exists a 
constant stimulus to invent circumstances 
and intentions in order to depreciate the 
adverse party, with the persuasion that 
all means are justifiable to lower an 
adversary; when prevails the rage to 
search out evidence against others, and 
that obtained, despite of its manifest 
futility and falsehood, great is the ardor 
evinced in sustaining, in magnifying it, 



16 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

in feigning belief in its validity. They 
who have no simplicity of heart, ever 
deem the hearts of others deceitful. 
Does one who is displeasing to them 
only speak, they pretend that all he says 
is ill-intentioned; does one who is un- 
pleasing to them pray or give alms, they 
return thanks to heaven for not being 
like him — hypocrites ! 

You, though born in an age in which 
falsehood and distrust carried to excess 
are so general, hold yourself pure from 
these vices. Be generously disposed to 
believe in the truth of others, and if 
others believe not in yours, be not indig- 
nant ; let it suffice that it shines " in the 
eyes of Him who sees all things." 



CHAPTEE III. 

RELIGION. 



Being firmly convinced of the superi- 
ority of man above the brute, and of the 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 17 

existence of something divine within him, 
we should hold in high esteem all such 
sentiments as tend to ennoble him ; and 
it being evident that none so much exalt 
him as his aspirations after perfection, 
after happiness, after God, we must of 
necessity recognize the excellency of re- 
ligion, and cultivate it. 

Be not daunted either by the multi- 
tude of hypocrites, or those scoffers who 
dare to style you hypocritical, because 
religious. Without strength of mind we 
possess no virtue, we perform no exalted 
duty ; consequently, in order to be pious, 
we must not be pusillanimous. 

And be even still less daunted at being 
associated as a Christian with many 
vulgar souls, little capable of appreciat- 
ing all that religion has of sublime. That 
the vulgar man can and ought to be 
religious, is no proof that religion is a 
vulgar matter. If the ignorant are oblig- 
ed to be honest, is that a reason why the 
civilized man should blush at being so? 



18 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Your studies and your reason have 
taught you that there is no religion purer 
than Christianity, more exempt from 
errors, more resplendently holy, more 
impressed with a divine character. No 
other had so great an influence in ad- 
vancing, in diffusing civilization, in abol- 
ishing, in mitigating slavery, in rendering 
all mortals sensible of their fraternity 
before God, their fraternity with God 
Himself. 

Weigh all this within you, and espe- 
cially the solidity of the historic proofs, 
which are sufficient to stand the test of 
all dispassionate investigation. 

And in order to escape the illusion of 
sophisms directed against the validitj 7 of 
these, having thus investigated, consider 
the vast number of men of superior 
genius who regarded these same proofs 
as conclusive, some of the profound 
thinkers of our era, from Dante, St. 
Thomas, St. Augustine, and the early 
Fathers of the Church. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 19 

Every nation affords you illustrious 
names which no sceptic may presume 
to despise. 

The celebrated Bacon, so much vaunt- 
ed by the empiric school, so far from 
being incredulous, as were the warmest 
of his panegyrists, always professed him- 
self a Christian. Grotius was a Christ- 
ian, although in some respects he erred, 
and wrote a treatise On the Truth of 
Religion. Leibnitz was one of the most 
ardent champions of religion. Newton 
did not blush to compose a book On the 
Conformity of the Gospels. Locke wrote 
on Bational Christianity. Our Volta, 
possessing a profound knowledge of 
physics and vast erudition, was, during 
his life, a most virtuous Catholic. The 
opinion of such men of genius and of so 
many others, is assuredly of the greatest 
weight in attesting that Christianity is in 
perfect harmony with the understanding 
— I mean to say, with an understand- 
ing universal in its knowledge and re- 



20 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

searches ; not cramped, not biassed, not 
perverted by its love of scorn and irre- 
ligion. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

QUOTATIONS. 

Amongst the celebrated men of the 
world, are to be enumerated some irreli- 
gious, and not a few, full of errors and 
inconsistencies in point of faith. But 
what of that? Of all they asserted, as 
much against Christianity in general as 
against Catholicism, they proved nothing 
whatsoever, and their leaders could not, 
in divers of their works, avoid admitting 
the wisdom of that religion which they 
detested, or so indifferently observed. 

The following quotations, although de- 
void of the charm of novelty, lose nothing 
of their importance, and merit a place 
here. 

J. J. Eosseau writes in his Emile these 
memorable words : 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 21 

" I must acknowledge, the majesty of 
the Scripture amazes me; the sanctity of 
the Gospel speaks to my heart. Consider 
the books of the philosophers with all 
their pomp, how trivial are they all com- 
paratively speaking ! Is it possible that 
a book so sublime, and so simple at the 
same time, is the work of man? The 
actions of Socrates, of which no one 
thinks of forming a doubt, are by far 
less authenticated than those of Christ. 
Moreover, it would be avoiding the diffi- 
culty and not surmounting it ; it would 
be more incomprehensible if several men 
had combined in writing that book, than 
if a solitary individual had furnished 
the subject. And the Gospel has char- 
acters of truth so grand, so luminous, 
so completely inimitable, that the inventor 
would be still more wonderful than the 
hero ! " 

The same Rousseau says again : 
" Shun those men who, under pretext 
of unfolding the wonders of nature, infuse 



22 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

into your hearts destructive doctrines. 
Upsetting, destroying, trampling under 
foot all that men respect, they deprive 
the afflicted of the last consolation of 
their misery ; they take from the rich 
and powerful the sole curb on their 
passions ; they wrench from the depth 
of the heart the remorse attendant on 
crime, the hope accompanying virtue, 
while boasting of being the benefactors 
of mankind. Virtue (so they speak) is 
never pernicious to men. Such is also 
my belief, and in my opinion a proof 
that that which they teach is not truth." 

Montesquieu, although not himself 
irreprehensible respecting religion, is in- 
dignant with those who attribute to 
Christianity imaginary faults. 

" Bayle," says he, " after insulting all 
religions, vilifies Christianity. He dares 
to assert that no states formed by true 
Christians could hold together ! And, 
wherefore not? They would be citizens 
highly enlightened, respecting their du- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 23 

ties, and ardently zealous in their per- 
formance. They would thoroughly com- 
prehend the duty of natural defence, and, 
believing themselves bound by the obli- 
gations of religion, they would in equal 
measure feel themselves bound by those 
of country. 

" Marvelous to say, the Christian reli- 
gion, which seems to have no object in 
view save our happiness in another life, 
contributes also to that of this present 
existence." (v. Spirit of the Laws, 1. 3, c. 
6.) And further: "it is a vicious mode 
of reasoning against religion, to collect in 
one vast work a long series of ills which 
accompanied her, without at the same 
time enumerating the benefits for which 
we were indebted to her. Any one who 
would choose to sum up all the evils 
arising in the world from the civil laws, 
from monarchical, from republican gov- 
ernment, would cite astounding facts. If 
we call to mind the continued series of 
slaughter under the Greek and Roman 



24 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

kings and leaders, the destruction of 
nations and cities by these fierce chiefs ; 
the violence of Tamerlane and of Zingis 
Khan, who devastated Asia, we shall 
find that to Christianity are owing, in the 
government of nations, a certain political 
equity ; in war, a certain observance of 
the rights of mankind, for which human 
nature cannot be sufficiently grateful." 
(Ibid. 1. 24, c. 2 and 3.) 

The great Byron, that stupendous 
genius, who was wont by turns, so 
culpably, to adore now virtue, now vice, 
now truth, now falsehood, yet was con- 
sumed by an ardent thirst of truth and 
virtue, and attested the veneration he 
was forced to entertain for the Catholic 
doctrines. He desired that a daughter 
of his should be educated in that reli- 
gion. We know of a letter wherein, in 
allusion to this resolution, he says that 
such was his wish, because he could 
distinguish in no other creed so much 
of the light of truth. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 25 

The friend of Byron, and next to him 
the greatest poet existing in England, 
Thomas Moore, after many years of 
doubt regarding the choice of a religion, 
made profound investigations into Christ- 
ianity, and confessed the impossibility 
of being a Christian and a good logician, 
without being a Catholic. He related all 
the researches made by him, and the 
inevitable conclusion to which they led 
him. 

" Hail ! then to thee ! " he exclaims, 

" thou one and only true Church, which 

art alone the way of life, and in whose 

tabernacles alone there is shelter from all 

this confusion of tongues. In the shadow, 

of thy sacred mysteries let my soul 

henceforth repose, remote alike from the 

infidel who scoffs at their darkness, and 

the rash believer who vainly would pry 

into their recesses, saying to both, in the 

language of St. Augustine : ' Do you 

reason, while I wonder ; do you dispute, 

while I shall believe ; and beholding the 
3 



26 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

heights of divine power, forbear to ap- 
proach its depths P ■" •'* 



CHAPTEE V. 

RESOL UTION REGARDING RELIGION. 

Let the foregoing considerations and 
the innumerable proofs in favor of Christ- 
ianity and of our Church, inspire you to 
repeat similar words, and to say reso- 
lutely : I desire to be insensible to all 
those arguments, ever specious, yet ut- 
terly inconclusive, which assail religion ; 
I see it is untrue that she is opposed to 
enlightenment ; I see it is untrue that 
she was only suited to a barbarous age, 
and not to the present times ; since, after 
having been adapted to Asiatic civiliza- 
tion, to Greek, to Boman civilization, to 
the various states of the Middle Ages, 

° See Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a 
Religion, with Notes and Explanations, by Thomas 
Moore. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 27 

she is suited to all such as subsequently 
to that period returned to civilization ; 
and she is likewise suited at the present 
day to understandings which yield to 
none in elevation of thought. I see that 
from the first heresiarchs, down to the 
school of Voltaire and his companions, 
and afterwards to the St. Simonians of 
our days, all boasted of teaching better 
things, and that none ever could do so. 
And what then ? Consequently, while I 
glory in being the enemy of barbarism 
and the friend of enlightenment, I glory 
in being Catholic, and pity those who 
deride me, who boast of confounding me 
with the superstitious and the Pharisees. 
After this insight and protestation, be 
steadfast and firm. Honor religion as far 
as may be possible by your affections and 
talents, and profess it among believers 
and unbelievers, but not so in following 
coldly and materially the routine of wor- 
ship, but in animating its observance by 
elevated thoughts, raising yourself to the 



28 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

admiration of the sublimity of the divine 
mysteries, without arrogantly desiring to 
fathom them, penetrating yourself with 
the virtues which flow from them, and 
never forgetting that adoration alone in 
prayer avails not, unless we purpose to 
adore God in all our works. 

The beauty and the truth of the 
Catholic faith shine in all their lustre 
before the eyes of some; they feel that 
no philosophy can be more philosophical, 
more averse to all injustice, more friendly 
to the rights of man ; and nevertheless, 
they move with the sad current ; they live 
as though Christianity were only fpr the 
vulgar, and that the polished man should 
take no part in it. They are more culpa- 
ble than actual unbelievers, and of such 
there are many. 

I, who was myself of the number, am 
aware that one cannot rise from that 
state without making the most vigorous 
efforts, which do you likewise, should you 
ever engage in a similar course. Let not 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 29 

the ridicule of others affect you, when it 
is fitting to avow an upright sentiment — 
the most worthy of all sentiments is that 
of loving God. 

But, if it should happen that you have 
to pass from false doctrines or indiffer- 
ence to the sincere profession of faith, 
afford not to the eyes of the incredulous 
the scandal of a ridiculous, irrational 
devotion, and of pusillanimous scruples ; 
be humble in the eyes of God and of men, 
but never forgetful of your dignity as 
man, or apostate to common reason. The 
reason of him who is filled with hatred 
and pride is opposed to the Gospel. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

PHILANTHROPY AND CHARITY. 

It is through religion alone that man 
feels the obligation of a sincere philan- 
thropy, of a sincere charity. 

Charity is a stupendous word, but phi- 



30 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

lanthropy likewise, — although many so- 
phists have abused it, — is holy. The 
apostle employed it to designate the love 
of humanity, and also applied it to that 
love of humanity which is in God Him- 
self. "We read in the Epistle to Titus, 
chap. iii. : But ivhen the goodness and kind- 
ness of our Saviour God appeared. 

The Omnipotent loves mankind, and 
desires that each of us should do so like- 
wise. It is not given, as we have already 
remarked, to man to be good, to be satis- 
fied with, to esteem himself, otherwise 
than in imitating Him in this generous 
love, in desiring the virtue and felicity of 
his neighbor, in rendering him service 
when in his power. 

In this love is comprised almost all 
human merit ; it forms even a most 
essential part of the love which we owe 
to God, as we see in several sublime 
passages of the sacred writings, and 
principally in the following : 

" Then shall the King say to them that 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 31 

shall be on His right hand : Come, ye 
blessed of My Father, possess the king- 
dom prepared for you from the founda- 
tion of the world. For I was hungry, 
and you gave Me to eat ; I was thirsty, 
and you gave Me to drink; I was a 
gtranger, and you took Me in ; naked, 
and you clothed Me ; sick, and you vis- 
ited Me ; I was in prison, and you came 
to Me. Then shall the just answer Him, 
saying : Lord, when did we see Thee 
hungry, and fed Thee ; thirsty, and gave 
Thee drink ? and when did we see Thee 
a stranger, and took Thee in ; or naked, 
and clothed Thee? or when did we see 
Thee sick, or in prison, and came to 
Thee? And the King, answering, shall 
say to them : Amen I say to you, as long 
as you did it to one of these My least 
brethren, you did it to Me." (Matt, xxv.) 
Let us form within our mind an ele- 
vated type of man, and endeavor to 
assimilate ourselves to it. But what do 
I say? Our religion furnishes us with 



32 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

one, and oh ! of what surpassing excel- 
lence ! He whom she offers us as a 
model is the Man, strong and merciful in 
a supreme degree ; the irreconcilable en- 
emy of oppression and of hypocrisy ; the 
philanthropist who pardons all, save im- 
penitent crime ; He who could take ven- 
geance, and will not be revenged ; He who 
makes Himself the brother of the poor, 
and condemns not the happy of this 
world, provided they remember they are 
the brethren of the indigent; He who 
esteems not men according to the meas- 
ure of their wisdom or prosperity, but 
according to the dispositions of their 
hearts, according to their actions. He is 
the sole philosopher in whom we cannot 
discern the slightest blemish ; He is the 
full manifestation of God in a being of 
our species — He is the Man-God. 

He who has in his mind so worthy a 
model, with what reverence will He not 
regard human nature ! Love is ever in 
proportion to esteem. In order to love 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 33 

human nature deeply, we must esteem it 
highly. 

He who, on the contrary, forms of his 
fellow-men a type, mean, ignoble, uncer- 
tain ; he who is pleased to consider the 
human race as a herd of cunning, un- 
ideaed animals, born for nought else but 
to eat, to increase, to move, and return to 
dust ; he who'will see nothing grand in 
civilization, in the sciences, in the arts, in 
the search after justice, in our insatiable 
tendency towards the beautiful, the good, 
the divine, ah ! what motive can such a be- 
ing have for sincerely respecting his fellow- 
man, for loving him, for urging him to 
emulate him in the acquisition of virtues, 
for immolating himself in his interest ? 

In order to love humanity, we must 
bear to look on its weaknesses, its vices, 
without being scandalized. 

Wherever we encounter ignorance, let 
us reflect on the high faculty bestowed 
on man of arising from that state, by the 
right use of his intelligence. Let us like- 



34 ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 

wise admire that other noble faculty of 
human nature, namely, that which ena- 
bles men, when even sunk in the depths 
of ignorance, to practice the sublimest of 
social virtues, as courage, compassion, 
gratitude, justice. 

Those beings who never undertake the 
task of enlightening themselves, or follow- 
ing the practice of virtues, are individ- 
uals, and not humanity. If they be 
excusable, and to what extent, is known 
alone to God. 

Let it suffice for us that from each 
shall be demanded an account solely in 
proportion to the sum of talents bestowed 
on him. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

ON THE ESTEEM OF MAN 

Among mankind, let us fix our atten- 
tion on such as who, attesting in their 
own lives the moral grandeur of their 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 35 

species, show us that which we should 
aspire to become. We cannot, it is true, 
equal them in fame, but that is not the 
important point. "We can always equal 
them in intrinsic worth ; that is to say, in 
the culture of noble sentiments, when we 
are not abortive or weak in intellect ; 
when our existence, gifted with intelli- 
gence, emerges from the period of infancy. 

When we are tempted to despise man- 
kind, in witnessing with our own eyes, or 
else reading in history several of their 
acts of turpitude, let us direct our atten- 
tion to those venerable mortals who shine 
in the pages of history. The choleric yet 
generous Byron, told me that such was 
the only means by which he could pre- 
serve himself from misanthropy. 

" The first great man," as he observed 
to me, " who occurs to my mind, is inva- 
riably Moses : Moses, who raised a peo- 
ple sunk in abasement ; who saved them 
from the opprobrium of idolatry and of 
slavery ; who dictated to them a law 



36 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

replete with wisdom — that marvelous bond 
between the religion of the patriarchs 
and* the religion of the civilized ages — 
the Gospel. The virtues and the instruc- 
tions of Moses were the means employed 
by Providence to give to that people able 
statesmen, valiant warriors, excellent citi- 
zens, men inflamed with a holy ardor of 
equity, whose vocation was to predict the 
fate of the *proud and of the hypocrite, 
and the future civilization of all nations. 
" In contemplating certain great men, 
and chiefly my paragon Moses," con- 
tinued Byron, "I repeat always with 
enthusiasm this sublime verse of Dante : 

' Che di vederli, in me stasso m'esalto ! ' * 

and then I adopt a good opinion of this 
flesh of Adam, and of the spirit which 
animates it." 

These words of the great English poet 
remained indelibly impressed in my mind, 
and I confess that more than once I 

% Beholding them, I glory in myself. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 37 

derived great advantage from them in 
acting like him, when assailed by the 
horrible temptation of misanthropy. 

The men of magnanimity of the past 
and present time, are a sufficient contra- 
diction to any one having a low idea of 
the nature of man. How many such 
exalted characters were to be seen in the 
far distant past ! how many in the time 
of the Romans ! how many amidst the 
barbarism of the Middle Ages, and how 
many during the period of modern civili- 
zation ! There, the martyrs of the truth ; 
here, the benefactors of the afflicted ; 
then again, the Fathers of the Church, 
admirable by their colossal philosophy 
and their ardent charity ; everywhere 
valiant warriors, champions of justice, 
restorers of light, poetic sages, scientific 
sages, artistic sages ! 

Let not the remoteness of the era nor 
the exalted lot of these personages, lead 
us to imagine them as beings differing 
in species from us. No truly, they were 



38 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

not in their origin more of demigods than 
we ourselves. They were born of woman ; 
they suffered and wept as ourselves ; like 
us it was allotted them to combat their 
evil inclinations, at times to blush at 
themselves, to struggle hard to overcome 
self. 

The annals of nations and the other 
memorials extant, record only a small 
portion of the sublime souls that existed 
on earth. But thousand-fold again and 
again are those who, without possessing 
any celebrity, honor by the productions 
of their minds, and by their just actions, 
the name of man, their fraternity with all 
men of excellence, their fraternity — we 
repeat it — their fraternity with God! 

Is it not deluding ourselves, to recall 
the excellence and the multitude of the 
good ; is it not merely regarding the fair 
side of humanity, to deny the existence 
of an infinity of erring and perverted 
souls ? That the erring and the perverse 
abound, granted ; but the consequence to 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 39 

be deduced is tins : that man may become 
wonderful by the powers of his under- 
standing ; that he may rest unperverted ; 
that he can at all times, with any degree 
whatsoever of cultivation, in every posi- 
tion of fortune ennoble himself by sublime 
virtues, and for such like considerations 
possess a right to the esteem of all 
intelligent beings. When we grant him 
all that esteem to which he is entitled 
— seeing him impelled onward towards 
infinite perfection; seeing him appertain 
to the immortal world of ideas, still 
more than to the few flitting days during 
which, even as the vegetable and the 
brute, he appears subject to the laws of 
this material world ; seeing him at least 
capable of quitting the ranks of the 
beastial troop, and hearing him exclaim : 
I am superior to you all, and to all 
earthly things that encompass me — we 
shall feel our sympathetic throbs for him 
redouble. His very miseries, his very 
errors move us to deeper compassion, 



40 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

remembering the grandeur of his nature. 
We shall lament to see the king of creat- 
ures debase himself; we shall burn now 
to throw a veil of charity over his errors ; 
again, to extend a hand to raise him from 
the depth of his abasement, that he may 
regain the lofty eminence from which he 
is fallen; we shall exult each time we be- 
hold him, mindful of his dignity, appear- 
ing unsubdued amid shame and torture, 
triumphing over the bitterest trials, as- 
similating himself with all the glorious 
energy of his will, to his divine type ! 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

LOVE OF COUNTRY. 

All such affections as bind man to man, 
and dispose him to virtue, are noble. 
The cynic, who employs so many soph- 
isms against every generous sentiment, 
is wont to make a display of philan- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 41 

thropy, in order to depreciate the love of 
country. 

He says : " My country is the world, 
that corner in which I was born possesses 
no right to my preference, since it cannot 
excel in worth all other lands, where one 
may live equally well, or it may be, 
better ; the love of country is nothing 
else but a species of common egotism 
among a group of men, to authorize them 
in hating the rest of mankind. 

My friend, do not be the sport of such 
a vile philosophy. It is in its nature to 
vilify man, to deny the existence of his 
virtues, to designate as illusion, as folly, 
or as perversity, all that most exalts 
him. To combine high-sounding words 
in depreciating some noble tendency, 
some incentive to social advantage, is an 
easy but a contemptible art. 

Cynicism holds man in the slime, true 
philosophy burns to withdraw him from 
it ; is religious, and honors the love of 
country. 



42 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

In truth, we may say of the entire 
world that it is our country. All nations 
are fractions of one vast family, which, by 
reason of its great extension, cannot be 
united under one government, although 
having for its supreme lord the Most 
High. Considering the beings of our 
common species as one family tends to 
render us benevolent towards humanity 
in general. But this view does not ex- 
clude others equally just. 

It is likewise a fact that the human 
species is divided into nations. Each 
nation or people is that collective body of 
men, that religion, laws, customs, iden- 
tity of language, of origin, of glory, of 
grievances, of hopes, or the greater part 
of, if not all, these elements united in one 
particular sympathy. To call common 
egotism that sympathy, and the unity 
of interest among the members of a 
community, would be all the same as if 
the mania of satire would bethink itself 
to vilify paternal, filial affection, qualify- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 43 

ing them as a conspiracy between all 
fathers and their sons. 

Let us ever bear in mind that truth 
has many aspects ; that among virtuous 
sentiments there is not one which should 
not be cultivated. Can any among them, 
in becoming exclusive, grow pernicious? 
Let it not be exclusive, and so it will not 
be pernicious. Excellent is the love of 
humanity, yet it should not preclude that 
of our birth-place ; the love of the latter 
is likewise excellent, yet it should not 
preclude that of humanity. 

Shame on the ignoble soul which 
applauds not the multiplicity of forms 
and of motives which the sacred instinct 
of fraternity can assume among men, in 
the interchange of honors, of aid, and of 
civilities. 

Two European travellers, the one born 
at Turin, the other at London, meet in, 
another region of the globe. They are 
Europeans ; that community of name 
constitutes a certain bond of love, I 



44 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

might almost say of patriotism. And 
thence arises a laudable zeal in rendering 
mutual services. 

Observe, elsewhere, some persons who 
understand each other with difficulty, 
they speak not usually the same lan- 
guage ; if you believe not there could be 
a sentiment of patriotism between them 
then, you mistake. They are Swiss, the 
one from the Italian cantons, the other 
from a French, another again from a 
German canton. The identity of the 
political bond that protects them supplies 
the want of a common language, unites 
them, engages them to contribute by 
generous sacrifices to the advantage of a 
native land which is not a nation. 

Take another example — in Italy or 
Germany : men living under different 
laws, sometimes obliged to make war 
among themselves. Yet they speak, or 
at least write the same language, they 
honor the same common ancestors, they 
glory in the same literature, they have all 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 45 

similar tastes, a mutual want of sympa- 
thy, of indulgence, of reciprocal support. 
Such motives render them towards each 
other more pious, more ardent in their 
strife of urbanity. 

Patriotism, whether applied to a coun- 
try of vast, or of inconsiderable extent, 
is always a noble sentiment. There is 
no portion of a nation but what has its 
own particular renown; princes who con- 
ferred on it a relative force, more or less 
considerable ; memorable historic achieve- 
ments, excellent institutions, important 
cities, some splendid prevailing character- 
istic of the people, men rendered illustri- 
ous by their valor, by their policy, by arts 
and sciences. Consequently, there exists 
for each a motive to justify his predi- 
lection towards his native province, his 
native city, or his native town. 

But let us bear in mind that love of 
country, equally in the most extended, as 
in the more restricted spheres, consists 
not in a sentiment of vain glory at being 



46 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

a native of such or such a land, and in 
feelings of hatred against other cities, 
other provinces, other nations. That 
patriotism which is illiberal, envious, 
ferocious, is to be counted a vice and 
not a virtue. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

TEE TRUE PATRIOT. 

In order to love our country with a 
truly exalted sentiment, we should com- 
mence by giving her in our own persons 
citizens for whom she would have no 
reason to blush, but in whom, on the 
contrary, she might feel honored. 

To scoff at religion and good morals, 
and entertain a worthy love of country, 
are two things which are incompatible, 
as much so as to imagine it possible 
to conceive a worthy estimation of the 
woman we love, without feeling any obli- 
gation of fidelity to her on our part. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 47 

When a man who scoffs at the altar, at 
the sacred bond of marriage, at decorum, 
at probitj- — exclaims, " My country ! my 
country ! " distrust him, he is a hypo- 
crite of patriotism, a citizen of the worst 
order. 

There is no good patriot other than the 
virtuous man — he who knows and loves 
all his duties, and makes it his study to 
accomplish them. 

He is not to be confounded either with 
the parasite of power, or with the malig- 
nant hater of all authority : to be servile 
and to be irreverent are both equally 
excesses. 

Should he occupy a post as governor in 
a civil or military capacity, his chief aim 
is not to amass riches, but to promote 
the honor and prosperity of prince and 
of people. Should he be a private citizen, 
these are equally the objects of his most 
ardent wishes, never acting in opposition 
to this end, but, on the contrary, contrib- 
uting, by all his efforts, to its attainment. 



48 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

He is sensible that in all societies there 
are abuses, and is desirous of their refor- 
mation ; but is abhorrent of that spirit 
of fury that would correct them by means 
of rapine and of sanguinary vengeance, 
because of all abuses these latter are the 
most terrible and fatal. 

Neither does he invoke or excite civil 
dissensions ; but is, on the contrary, by 
word and by example, a pacificator, as 
far as depends on him, of the violent, 
and the friend of indulgence and of 
peace ; he ceases not to be the lamb, till 
his country, in the hour of danger needs 
a defender. It is then he becomes the 
lion, fights, and conquers or dies. 



CHAPTEE X. 

FILIAL AFFECTION. 

The career of all your actions com- 
mences in your own family ; the first 
arena of virtue is the paternal home. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 49 

What shall we say of those who pre- 
tend to love their country, who make a 
display of heroism, and fail in snch a 
high duty as that of filial pietj 7 ? There 
exists no love of country, there exists not 
the smallest germ of heroism wheresoever 
is to be found black ingratitude. 

Scarcely does the idea of duty dawn on 
the intelligence of the child, when nature 
proclaims to him : " Love thy parents." 
The instinct of filial love is so strong 
that there would appear to be no need to 
sustain it throughout life. Yet, as we 
have already remarked, on all good in- 
stincts it is needful that we affix the seal 
of our will, otherwise thej become lan- 
guid ; so it is requisite that the exercise 
of piety towards our parents be based on 
a fixed purpose. 

He who pretends to love God, to love 
humanity, to love country, how can he 
entertain otherwise than the highest rev- 
erence for those through whom he has be- 
come a creature of God, a man, a citizen ? 
5 



50 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG HEN. 

A father and a mother are naturally 
our first friends ; they are among mortal 
creatures those to whom we are most 
indebted ; we are bound by the most 
sacred ties of gratitude, to respect, to 
love, to indulgence, and to the courteous 
demonstration of all these sentiments 
towards them. 

Yet it too easily happens that the close 
intimacy in which we live with those per- 
sons who are nearest akin to us may 
habituate us to treat them with utter 
indifference — little studious of rendering 
ourselves pleasing or cheering their exist- 
ence. 

Be guarded against similar faults : he 
who wishes to grow polished should bring 
to bear in all his affections a certain dis- 
position to exactness and elegance, so as 
to give them all that perfection of which 
they are susceptible. 

To study to show oneself in society a 
courteous observer of every art of pleas- 
ing, and to be at the same time wanting 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 51 

in deference and amenity towards one's 
parents, is irrational and culpable. Good 
manners are acquired by assiduity, com- 
mencing in the first instance in the bosom 
of one's family. 

" Where is the evil," say some certain 
persons, " of living in habits of perfect 
freedom with one's parents? They are 
already aware that they are loved by 
their children, without the grimaces of an 
agreeable exterior, even without any obli- 
gation on the part of these latter to dis- 
semble their ill humor or their whims." 
You who desire not to become vulgar 
reason not thus. If living free from 
restraint means to say to be rude, it is 
rudeness which no degree of intimacy or 
relationship can justify. 

The mind not possessed of courage to 
study to be pleasing to others, equally at 
home as in society, to acquire every 
virtue, to honor man in self, to honor 
God in other men, that mind is a pusil- 
lanimous mind. From the noble exertion 



52 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

of being good, courteous, refined, there is 
no time of repose save that of sleep. 

Filial affection is not alone a duty of 
gratitude, but is also one of infallible 
propriety. In case one should have — as 
rarely occurs — parents almost devoid of 
affection, and with few claims to esteem, 
the mere circumstance of their being the 
authors of one's being endows them with 
such a venerable quality that one cannot 
without infamy — I will not say despise 
them, but even in the slightest degree 
treat them with indifference. In such 
case, the homage paid them will have 
greater merit, yet will be none the less a 
tribute paid to nature, to the edification 
of one's equals, to one's proper dignity. 

Blamable is he who constitutes him- 
self the rigid censor of some defect in his 
parents ! and where shall we commence 
to exercise charity, if we refuse it to a 
father, to a mother ? 

To require of them, in order to respect 
them, that they should be without defect, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 53 

tliat they should be the perfection of 
humanity, is pride and injustice. We 
who likewise all wish to be respected and 
loved, are we always irreproachable ? If, 
in like manner, a father or a mother be 
far removed from that ideal of intelli- 
gence and virtue we should desire, let us 
become industrious in excusing them, in 
hiding their defects from the eyes of 
others, in appreciating all their good 
qualities. Thus acting, we shall become 
better men ourselves, in acquiring a tone 
of mind pious, generous, sagacious in 
recognizing the merit of others. 

My friend, let this thought, sad, yet 
fertile in compassion and longanimity, 
oftentimes enter deeply into j^our soul. 
" Those venerable gray heads that are 
here before me, who knows if they will 
not shortly slumber in the tomb ? " Ah, 
while you have the happiness to see 
them, honor them, and afford them con- 
solation in the many ills of old age. 

Their advanced age disposes them but 



54 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

too much, to sadness ; on your part con- 
tribute not to sadden them. Let your 
manner and conduct towards them be 
always so amiable that the very sight of 
you may suffice to cheer, to enliven them. 
Every smile you will call forth on their 
aged lips, every satisfaction you will 
awaken in their hearts, will be for them 
the most salutary of pleasures, and re- 
dound to your own advantage. The ben- 
edictions of a father and of a mother on 
the head of a grateful son, are always 
sanctified by God. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

RESPECT TO WARDS A GED PERSONS AND TJR 
FOREFATHERS. 

Honor in all aged persons the image 
of your parents and ancestors. Old age 
is venerable to every well-bred mind. 

In ancient Sparta there was a law 
obliging young men to rise from their 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 55 

seats on tlie entrance of an aged man, 
to be silent when he spoke, to give him 
way when meeting him. That for which 
the law does not provide, let decorum 
effect, which would be still better. 

So high is the estimation in which the 
moral beauty of this virtue is held, that 
even those who forget to practice it 
are obliged to applaud it in others. 

An old Athenian was seeking for a 
seat at the Olympic games, but all the 
places in the amphitheatre were full. 
Some rude young men, his fellow-citizens, 
made him a sign to approach them. On 
their invitation the old man made his 
way with much difficulty, but instead of 
a courteous reception, he was greeted 
with insolent laughter. The luckless old 
man, driven from place to place, reached 
the seats occupied by the Spartans. 
These, faithful to the custom held sacred 
in their country, rose up respectfully, and 
placed him among them. Those same 
Athenians, who had so shamefully ridi- 



56 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

culed him, were seized with admiration 
for their generous rivals, and the most 
rapturous applause arose on all sides. 
Tears fell from the eyes of the old man as 
he exclaimed : " The Athenians under- 
stand politeness, the Spartans practice 
it." 

Alexander of Macedon, on whom I 
here willingly bestow his title of " the 
Great," while the most brilliant success 
tempted him to vain-glory, yet knew how 
to humble himself in the presence of the 
aged. Being once arrested in his tri- 
umphal march by an unusual fall of snow, 
he commanded a fire of wood to be 
lighted, and, placed on his chair of state, 
sat warming himself. Seeing among his 
followers a man bent down by age, who 
.was trembling with cold, he bounded 
towards him, and with those victorious 
hands that had overthrown the empire of 
Darius, took hold of the shivering old 
man, and placed him in his own seat. 

" There is no man so wicked as he who 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 57 

is capable of disrespect towards old age, 
towards woman, and towards misfortune," 
said Parini. And effectually Parini availed 
himself very much of his authority over 
his disciples, in obliging them to show 
deference to old age. Being once highly 
displeased with a young person for some 
grievous misdemeanor which had been 
reported to him, he happened to meet 
the same young man in the street, as the 
latter was sustaining an old Capuchin, 
and decorously denouncing some ill-be- 
haved men who had pushed him rudely, 
Parini joined in his vociferations, and, 
flinging his arms around his neck, ex- 
claimed, " A minute since, I deemed thee 
perverse, now that I have witnessed thy 
piety towards the old, I believe thee once 
more capable of many virtues." 

Old age is infinitely more to be re- 
spected in those who had to endure the 
tedium of our childhood, and that of our 
early youth, in those who contributed 
their most zealous efforts to form our 



58 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

mind and heart. Let us be indulgent to 
their failings, let us generously estimate 
the pains we cost them, the affection they 
placed on us, and the sweet reward con- 
ferred on them in the continuation of our 
friendship. 

No ; he who devotes himself with a 
noble design to the education of youth, is 
not sufficiently recompensed in that bread 
that is deservedly bestowed on him. 
Those paternal, those maternal cares are 
not those of a mercenary. They ennoble 
him who has habituated himself to them. 
They form the soul to love, and they con- 
fer the right to be loved. 

Let us pay a filial deference to all our 
superiors, because they are our superiors ; 
and, likewise, to the memory of all those 
who deserved well of their country, or of 
humanity. Sacred to us be their writings, 
their images, their tombs. 

And when, in considering the past ages, 
and the remnants of barbarism they have 
left ; when, in deploring many ills of the 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 59 

present times, we recognize them as the 
consequences of the passions and the 
errors of by-gone ages; let us not yield to 
the temptation of vilifying our ancestors. 
Let us make it an obligation of con- 
science to form a pious judgment in their 
regard. They engaged in wars which we 
now deplore, but were they not justified 
by necessity, else by some blameless illu- 
sions, which, at such an immense distance 
we can with difficulty estimate? They 
invoked foreign intervention, which turned 
out fatal to them ; yet, here again, do not 
necessity and guiltless illusions interpose 
to justify them ? They imposed institu- 
tions which have not the sanction of our 
approbation ; but is it not likely that such 
institutions were suited to their times, 
that they were the most perfect that hu- 
man wisdom could devise, consistently 
with the social elements of the period ? 

The criticism should be enlightened, 
but not cruel towards our ancestors, not 
slanderous, not regardless of the rever- 



60 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

ence due to those who cannot rise from 
their tombs, and say to us, "My sons, 
learn the motives of our conduct." 

The maxim of the elder Cato has be- 
come celebrated — " It is a difficult matter 
to render comprehensible to the men of 
future ages that which justifies our pres- 
ent conduct." 



CHAPTEE XII. 

FRATERNAL AFFECTION. 

You have brothers and sisters; take 
especial care that that affection which you 
owe to your fellow-men commence to 
flourish in its highest perfection; in the 
first instance towards your parents, and 
next, towards those united to you by the 
strictest of all bonds of fraternity, namely, 
the community of parents. 

In order to cultivate effectually the Di- 
vine science of charity, with regard to all 
men, it is requisite we should take our 
first lessons in our own family. 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 61 

What sweetness in the thought, we are 
sons of the same mother ! What sweet- 
ness in the idea of having found, on our 
first entrance into the world, objects of 
predilection and veneration! The iden- 
tity of blood, with the similarity of many 
habits, amongst brothers and sisters nat- 
urally induce a strong sympathy, which 
nothing less than a horrible species of 
selfishness can destroy. 

If you desire to be a good brother, 
guard yourself from selfishness ; resolve, 
each day, to be generous in your fraternal 
relations. Let each and all of your broth- 
ers and sisters perceive that their interest 
is equally dear to you as your own. If 
one of them commit a fault, be indulgent, 
not in the same measure as towards any 
other, but in a still greater degree. Re- 
joice in their virtues, imitate them, en- 
courage them likewise by your example, 
so as that they may have cause to bless 
their lot in having you for a brother. 

Innumerable are the motives of sweet 
6 



62 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

thankfulness, of tender yearnings, of pious 
solicitude, that contribute incessantly to 
feed the flame of fraternal love, yet, not- 
withstanding, those demand reflection, 
else they frequently escape our observa- 
tion. It is requisite to command our- 
selves to appreciate them. Exquisitely 
refined sentiments are not acquired with- 
out a persevering will. As no one be- 
comes a judge of poetry or of painting 
without study, so, in like manner, no one 
understands the excellence of fraternal 
love, or of any other noble affection, with- 
out the assiduous will of comprehend- 
ing it. 

Let no domestic intimacy induce you 
to neglect being courteous towards your 
brothers. 

Be still more gracious with your sisters. 
Their sex has endowed them with a 
strong grace ; they are used to have re- 
course to this celestial means in order to 
diffuse serenity over the whole household, 
to banish all ill humor, and to soften the 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 63 

paternal and maternal corrections that 
they sometimes witness. Honor in their 
persons the gentleness of feminine vir- 
tues, avail yourself of the influence they 
possess, in sweetening your disposition. 
And since nature has formed them weaker 
and more sensitive than you, be conse- 
quently more assiduous in consoling them 
when afflicted, in not afflicting them your- 
self, in constantly evincing towards them 
your affection and respect. 

They who contract among their broth- 
ers and sisters habits of malignity and 
inelegance, always continue to be inele- 
gant and malignant with others. Let the 
intercourse of family be altogether lovely, 
all loving, all holy; and when the man 
goes forth into the world, he will evince 
in his relations with the rest of society 
that tendency to esteem, to all the gentle 
affections, and to that faith in virtue, that 
are fruits of a constant exercise of enno- 
bling sentiments. 



64 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

FRIENDSHIP. 

Besides parents and the other relations, 
who are the friends most directly given 
you by nature, and besides such of your 
instructors, who, as having chiefly merited 
your esteem, you style with pleasure 
friends, it will so happen that you will 
feel particular sympathy towards others, 
whose virtues will be less known to you, 
especially towards young persons of your 
own, or nearly your own age. 

When to yield to that sympathy, or 
when to repress it, is the question. The 
answer is not dubious. 

"We have a debt of benevolence to dis- 
charge towards all mortals, but we should 
not allow that sentiment to assume the 
form of friendship, unless it may be for 
such as may merit our esteem. Friend- 
ship is a fraternity, and, in its most ex- 
alted sense, is the very beau ideal of fra- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG KEN. 65 

ternity. It is a supreme bond of two or 
three souls — not of several — which have 
become, as it w r ere, essential to one an- 
other, which have found amongst them- 
selves reciprocally the most inclination to 
understand, to aid, nobly to interpret, and 
impel each other towards good. 

" Of all societies," says Cicero, " none 
is more noble, none more stable than that 
of good men similar in habits, and bound 
together by the ties of intimacy." 

" Omnium societatum nulla prsestantior 
est, nulla firmior, quam quum viri boni 
moribus similes sunt familiaritate con- 
juncti." (De off. 4, I. C. 18.) 

Dishonor not the sacred name of 
friendship in bestowing it on a man of 
little or no virtue. 

He who hates religion, who has not the 
highest appreciation of his dignity as 
man, who feels not the obligation of hon- 
oring his country by his intelligence and 
his probity, who is an irreverent son and 
an ill-natured brother, were he the most 



66 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

wonderful of mortals by the suavity of his 
manners and of his mien, by the elo- 
quence of his language, by the multipli- 
city of his acquirements, and even by a 
certain brilliant impetuosity in the per- 
formance of generous actions, yet, never- 
theless, be not induced to form a friend- 
ship with him. Should he even evince 
towards you the most lively affection, 
admit him not to your intimacy; the 
virtuous man alone has qualities proper 
to constitute him a friend. 

Before knowing any one as such, let 
the sole possibility of his not being so 
suffice to decide you to hold yourself to- 
wards him within the limits of a general 
courtesy. The gift of the heart is too 
important a matter ; to hasten to fling it 
away is a culpable imprudence, an un- 
worthy action. He who frequents per- 
verse companions, becomes perverted, or, 
at least, causes the opprobrium of their 
misconduct to reflect on himself. 

But, happy is the man who has found 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 67 

a worthy friend. Abandoned to his own 
unaided force, his virtue frequently lan- 
guishes, the example and applause of his 
friend give it double force. It may so 
happen that he was at first daunted, at 
seeing himself inclined to many failings ; 
and being unconscious of his own worth, 
the esteem of the man he loves exalts 
him in his own eyes. He still blushes in- 
teriorly at not possessing all that merit 
that the indulgence of the other attributes 
to him, but his courage augments in his 
efforts to correct himself. He rejoices 
that his good qualities have not escaped 
his friend ; for this he is grateful to him, 
he desires to acquire other virtues ; and 
thus, through means of friendship, we 
sometimes see courageously advance to- 
wards perfection a man who was, and who 
would have still remained far removed 
from it. 

Constrain not yourself to have friends. 
Far better have none than to have 
to repent for having chosen them with 



68 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

precipitation. But, when you have found 
one, honor him with an exalted friend- 
ship. 

This noble affection was sanctioned by 
all the philosophers, and is sanctioned by 
religion. 

We meet beautiful examples to this 
effect in the Scriptures. The soul of 
Jonathan became as one with that of 
David; Jonathan loved him as his own^ 
soul. Yet, what is still more, friendship 
was consecrated by the Redeemer Him- 
self. He held on His breast the head of 
tJohn, as he slept ; and from the cross, 
before He expired, He pronounced these 
Divine words, replete with filial love and 
friendship : " Mother, behold thy son ! 
Disciple, behold thy Mother!" 

I believe that friendship — I mean to 
say, true, exalted friendship, that which 
is based on a high degree of esteem — is 
necessary to man, in order to raise him 
from ignoble tendencies. It endows the 
soul with a certain poetry, with a certain 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 69 

sublime force, without which it soars with 
difficulty out of the slime of egotism. 

But, having once conceived and prom- 
ised friendship, impress its duties on your 
heart. They are manifold, these duties. 
They oblige to nothing less than to render 
yourself during life worthy of your friend. 

Some there are who counsel us to form 
friendship for no one, for this reason, 
that it absorbs too much our affections, 
distracts the mind, produces jealousy ; 
but I incline to the opinion of a philoso- 
pher of first order, St. Francis de Sales, 
who, in his Philothea, calls this a bad 
counsel. 

He admits that in the cloister there 
may be prudence in hindering particular 
friendship. " But," says he, "in the world 
it is necessary that those who desire to 
combat under the standard of virtue, 
the standard of the cross, make common 
cause. Those who live in the world, 
where are to be found so many difficul- 
ties to surmount, in order to obtain God, 



70 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

are like those travelers who, in steep and 
slippery paths hold by each other for 
support, in order to advance with greater 
security." The wicked lend each other 
aid in their evil actions ; w T hy should not 
the good likewise assist one another in 
the practice of good ? 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

ON STUDIES. 

Since it is in your pow r er, attend to the 
cultivation of your intellect, which is a 
sacred obligation, and so you will become 
fit to honor God, your country, your 
parents, and your friends. 

The wild dream of Eousseau that the 
savage is the happiest of mortals, that 
ignorance is preferable to knowledge, is 
contradicted by experience. All travel- 
ers have found the savage state most 
unhappy; we all see that the ignorant 
man can be good, but that the enlight- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 71 

ened man can and ought to be so, even in 
a higher degree. 

Knowledge is pernicious only when 
allied with pride. Let humility unite 
with it, it will dispose the soul to a more 
exalted love of God — to a more exalted 
love of humanity. 

"Whatsoever you learn, endeavor to 
master it as thoroughly as may be pos- 
sible. Superficial studies too often pro- 
duce mediocre and presumptuous men, 
secretly conscious of their insignificance, 
and the more ardent in leaguing with 
tiresome, shallow individuals like them- 
selves, to proclaim to the world that they 
are great, and that the really great are 
little. Thence proceeds the perpetual 
war of pedants against men of first-rate 
intellectual powers, and of vain declaim- 
ers against sound philosophers. Thence 
arises the error into which the multitude 
falls, at times, of venerating him who 
cries loudest and knows least. 

Our century is not wanting in men 



72 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

gifted with rare knowledge, but the su- 
perficial disgracefully outnumber them. 
Scorn to range thyself under the banners 
of these latter, and that, not through 
vanity, but through a sentiment of duty, 
of love of country, of magnanimous 
esteem of the powers of mind with which 
the Creator has endowed you. 

If you cannot attain a profound knowl- 
edge in various branches, run lightly over 
some, in order to acquire certain general 
notions, of which it is not allowable to 
be ignorant ; but select one study from 
among the rest, to which direct all the 
vigor of your faculties, and principally that 
of the will, so as to be surpassed by none. 

Excellent is this counsel of Seneca : 
" Dost thou desire that literature leave on 
thy mind lasting impressions? Limit 
thyself to the perusal of some authors full 
of true genius, sustain thy mind with 
their treasures. Being everywhere is 
like being in no particular place. A life 
passed in traveling makes us acquainted 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 73 

with many strangers, and but few friends. 
And such is the case with those hurried 
readers who devour an infinite number 
of books, without a decided preference 
for any one." 

Whatsoever may be your study of pre- 
dilection, guard yourself from an error 
which is very general — that of becom- 
ing such an exclusive admirer of your 
science, as to contemn those to which 
you have been unable to apply yourself. 

The trivial tirades of certain poets 
against prose, those of certain prose 
writers against poetry ; of naturalists 
against metaphysicians ; of mathemati- 
cians against non-mathematicians, and 
vice versa, are mere puerilities. All the 
sciences, all the arts, all means employed 
in discovering, in sensibly portraying the 
true and the beautiful, have a right to the 
homage of society, and, first of all, to that 
of the enlightened man. 

It is untrue that the accurate sciences 
and poetry are incompatible. Buffon was 



74 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

a great naturalist, and his style is bril- 
liant and animated with a stupendous 
heat of poetic fire. Maschironi was a 
good poet, and likewise a good mathema- 
tician. 

In cultivating poetry and other fine 
arts, take care not to incapacitate your 
understanding for the methodical appli- 
cation to figures and logical meditations. 
Were the eagle to say, " My nature is to 
fly ; I cannot consider things unless in 
flying," it would be ridiculous, as he could 
observe so many things with folded wings. 

On the other hand, let not that cool- 
ness demanded by your speculative studies 
induce you into the habit of supposing a 
man perfect because he has stifled within 
him every light of fancy, because he has 
crushed the sentiment of poetry. This 
sentiment, when well directed, instead of 
weakening the intelligence, in some in- 
stances strengthens it. 

In studies, as well as in politics, dis- 
trust factions and their systems. These 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 75 

latter examine well, in order to become 
acquainted with them; compare them 
with others, and draw your conclusions, 
so as not to be their slave. "What signify 
the contentions between the furious pane- 
gyrists and the defamers of Aristotle, of 
Plato, and other philosophers, or those 
between the panegyrists and the defamers 
of Ariosto and of Tasso ? The idolized 
and abused masters remain such as they 
were, neither divinities, nor geniuses of 
inferior order ; they who had given them- 
selves so much trouble to weigh them in 
false scales, were ridiculed, and the world 
which they had astounded learned noth- 
ing new. In all your studies, seek to unite 
calm decision with acumen, the patience 
of analysis with the force of synthesis, but 
principally the will of not allowing your- 
self to be daunted by obstacles, that of not 
being too much elevated by triumphs ; in 
other words, the will of enlightening your- 
self after the manner permitted by God, 
with ardor, yet without arrogance. 



76 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

CHAPTER XV. 

CHOICE OF A STATE. 

The choice of a state is a matter of the 
highest moment. Our fathers were wont 
to say that, in order to choose well, it 
w T as requisite to implore the Divine inspi- 
ration. I know not aught else to be said 
in this regard, even at the present day. 
Reflect with religious seriousness on your 
presumed future amongst men — and pray. 

Feeling in the depths of your heart the 
Divine voice dictating to you, not for a 
day alone, but for entire weeks, for entire 
months, and ever with increasing force 
of persuasion: — Behold the state you 
should choose : obey with courageous 
and firm will. Enter into that career, 
and press forward ; but bringing to it all 
the requisite virtues. 

Through means of virtue, every calling 
is excellent for him who is inclined to it. 
The ecclesiastical state, which terrifies 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 77 

him who has embraced it without reflec- 
tion, and with a heart given to amuse- 
ment, is all decorous and delightful to the 
pious and refined man ; the very monastic 
life which so many in the world consider, 
some as intolerable, others even as ridicu- 
lous, is also delicious and decorous in the 
eyes of the religious philosopher, who 
does not deem himself useless to society, 
in exercising his charity on behalf of 
some few other monks, and of some poor 
agriculturist. The gown, which many 
esteem an enormous weight, from the 
patient cares it entails, is pleasing to the 
man filled wdth zeal to devote the pow- 
ers of his understanding to the defence of 
his fellow-men. The noble profession of 
arms has an infinite charm for him who 
is inflamed with courage, and feels there 
is no more glorious action than to risk 
his life for his country. 

Marvelous to say, all states, from the 
highest down to that of the humblest 
artisans, have their own charms, and a 



78 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

true dignity. It suffices to have the will 
to cultivate the virtues requisite for each. 

If we hear so many curse the condition 
they have chosen, it is because few cher- 
ish those virtues. 

For your part, w r hen you will have 
prudently chosen a career, imitate not 
those eternal lamenters. Suffer not your- 
self to be troubled by vain repentance, by 
the will to change. Every path in life has 
its thorns ; having once engaged in one, 
press forward — to retreat would be 
weakness. Persistence is always excel- 
lent, unless, it may be, in error. He alone 
who knows how to persist in his enter- 
prise may hope to arrive at some dis- 
tinction. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

OF CHECKING EXCESSIVE SOLICITUDE. 

Many persevere in the state they have 
chosen, and become attached to it, yet 
are indignant because they do not ima- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 79 

gine themselves sufficiently esteemed and 
remunerated ; they chafe, because they 
have too many rivals, and all do not 
consent to be subservient to them. 

Banish from your mind such solicitudes. 
He who suffers himself to be their prey 
has lost his portion of happiness on earth ; 
he grows proud, and at times ridiculous in 
his undue appreciation of self, and at the 
same time unjust in his undue deprecia- 
tion of the objects of his envy. 

Assuredly, in human society, the re- 
wards of merit are not always equally 
proportioned. He who works with con- 
summate ability, has frequently such a 
degree of modesty as not to know how to 
recommend himself, and is often placed 
in the shade, and depreciated by bold, 
but mediocre spirits, whose ambition it is 
to rival him in the career of fortune. 
Such is the world; and, in this respect, 
vain would be the hope for its amend- 
ment. 

It then rests for you to smile at this 



80 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

necessity, and resign yourself. Impress 
deeply in your mind this great truth : 
The important point is to possess merit, 
and not to have it rewarded by men. 
Should they recompense it, it is exceed- 
ingly well ; or should they not, the merit 
becomes more exalted, in remaining still 
the same, though unrewarded. 

Society would be less vicious were 
every one careful to moderate his solici- 
tudes, his ambition ; yet not so as to 
become careless of augmenting his own 
prosperity, or grow indolent and apathe- 
tic, but in cherishing an ambition, fair 
but not frenzied, not envious, bat re- 
strained within those limits beyond which 
he perceives he may not pass, saying 
within himself: "If I attain not that 
high grade of w T hich I deemed myself 
worthy, even in this other less exalted, I 
am the same man, and have consequently 
the same intrinsic worth." 

It is not pardonable in any one to be 
solicitous for the reward of his labors, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 81 

unless it may be for a sufficiency for him- 
self and family ; beyond that we should 
desire with unperturbed spirit all other 
augmentations of prosperity that it may 
be lawful to seek. Should we succeed, 
let God be blessed ; they will be so many 
means to sweeten our existence, and serve 
others. Should we be disappointed, let 
God be blessed equally ; we can live 
w r orthily even without much luxury, and 
if w T e cannot serve our neighbor, con- 
science will make us no reproach. 

Do all within your power in order to 
be a useful citizen, and induce others to 
be such. And then, let things take their 
course. Bestow a sigh on the injustice 
and the wickedness you may encounter, 
yet grow not as a bear for all that ; fall 
not into misanthropy, nor, still worse, 
into that false philanthropy which, under 
pretence of serving mankind, is consumed 
with the thirst of blood, and courts that 
wondrous edifice, destruction, even as 
Satan courts death. 



82 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

He who hates the possible correction 
of social abuses is a fool or a villain ; but 
he who in loving that correction grows 
cruel is likewise a fool or a villain, and 
even in a greater degree. 

Without tranquillity of soul the greater 
portion of human judgments are false and 
malignant. That alone will render you 
strong in suffering, strong in persevering 
exertion, just, indulgent, affable with all. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

REPENTANCE AND AMENDMENT. 

In counseling you to bairish anxiety, I 
have given you to understand that you 
should not fall into indolence. And, 
above all, you should not relax in the 
perpetual task of your amelioration. 

That man is mistaken who says : " My 
moral education is complete, and my 
works have corroborated it." We should 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 83 

always learn to regulate ourselves for the 
present day, for the coming days; we 
should constantly keep our virtue alive, 
in the performance of renewed acts ; we 
should ever be mindful of our failings 
and repent of them. 

Yes, repent of them ! Nothing truer 
than the words of the Church, that our 
whole life should be a life of repentance 
and of aspirations after amendment. 
Christianity consists in nothing else. 
Voltaire himself, in one of those mo- 
ments w r hen not consumed by the rage of 
ridiculing it, writes : 

"Confession is an excellent thing; a 
check on our failings, invented at a re- 
mote period : the practice of confession 
was general in the celebration of all the 
ancient mysteries. We have imitated 
and sanctified this w r ise custom. It is 
most effectual in bringing hearts ulcer- 
ated by hatred to a sense of forgiveness." 
(v. Quest. Encicl. t. hi.) 

That which Voltaire here ventures to 



84 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

admit, it would be shameful if not felt by 
him who honors himself with the name 
of Christian. Let us listen to our con- 
science, let us blush at the actions with 
which it accuses us, let us confess them, 
in order to purify ourselves, and not cease 
from the holy task till the end of our 
days. If we perform it not with an apa- 
thetic will, if the faults we recall be not 
condemned alone by our lips, if to our 
repentance be joined a true desire of 
amendment, let him laugh who will, yet. 
nothing can be more salutary, more sub- 
lime, more worthy of man. 

When conscious of having committed a 
fault, hesitate not in repairing it. In so 
doing, alone, you will have your con- 
science at rest. The delay of reparation 
enchains the soul to evil, habituates it to 
self-contempt. And woe, when man in- 
teriorly condemns himself ! woe when he 
feigns to esteem himself, whilst he feels 
within his conscience a corruption which 
should not there exist ! woe, when having 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 85 

that corruption, lie believes he had best 
dissemble it ! He has no longer a grade 
amongst noble beings ; he is a fallen star, 
a misery in creation. 

Should some impudent youth call you 
weak, because you do not, like him, per- 
sist in your errors, answer him that he 
who resists vice is stronger than he who 
yields to it; answer him that the arro- 
gance of the sinner is a false force, since, 
on his death-bed, unless in delirium, he 
is sure to lose it ; answer him that that 
force of which you are enamored consists 
precisely in not heeding scorn, when you 
quit the evil path for that of virtue. 

When you have committed a fault, lie 
not in order to deny or extenuate it. 
Falsehood is a guilty weakness. Acknow- 
ledge that you were in fault, which is 
an act of magnanimity, and the shame 
attendant on this avowal will merit you 
the praise of the good. 

Should you happen to give offence, 
have the noble humility to ask forgive- 



86 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

ness. No one will call you mean for so 
doing; your general conduct will prove 
that you are not so. To persist in an 
insult, or, instead of honorably retracting 
it, to proceed to duelling and perpetual 
hostility, is the ridiculous folly of proud 
and ferocious men ; on such infamy we 
can with difficulty bestow the brilliant 
name of honor. 

There is no honor save in virtue ; there 
is no virtue save in constantly repenting 
of evil, and purposing to amend. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

CELIBACY. 

When you will have selected, amongst 
the different social callings, that which 
best suits you, and when it would seem 
to you to have given to your character 
that force of good habits that renders 
you worthy of a place among men, then, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 87 

alone, if you intend to have a wife, take 
care to select such a one as is deserving 
of your regard. 

But, previously to quitting the single 
state, reflect deeply if you should not 
give it the preference. 

If you feel you have not sufficiently 
vanquished your tendency to anger, jeal- 
ousy, suspicion, impatience, domineering 
harshness, to suppose you could render 
yourself pleasing to a companion, have 
the firmness to renounce the charms of 
matrimony. In taking a wife, you would 
render her unhappy, and yourself like- 
wise. 

Should you not find a person w T ho 
unites all such qualities as you deem 
necessary to satisfy you, and to insure 
to you the possession of her affections, 
allow not yourself to be persuaded to 
engage in the married state. Your duty 
is to remain single, preferably to swear 
a love you could not entertain. 

But whether you only prolong your 



88 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

celibacy, or continue in it for life, lionor 
it by the virtues it prescribes, and learn 
to appreciate its advantages. 

Yes, truly, it lias its advantages. And 
tliose of every condition in which man 
finds himself placed, he should recognize 
and appreciate ; otherwise, he will believe 
himself therein wretched and degraded, 
and will lose that courage essential for 
the dignified discharge of his duties. 

The mania of appearing furious at the 
disorders of society, and the opinion that 
perhaps it may be salutary to exaggerate 
them with a view to their correction, has 
frequently induced men of powerful elo- 
quence to direct the attention of others 
to the scandal given by several single 
men, and to proclaim that celibacy is con- 
trary to nature, an immense calamity, 
the leading cause of the depravation of 
the people. 

Suffer not yourself to be carried away 
by these hyperboles. Unhappily, the 
scandals of celibacy are but too true. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 89 

But, from the circumstance of men hav- 
ing arms and legs, scandals likewise arise, 
in the shape of kicks and blows ; yet 
that does not mean to say that arms and 
legs are the greatest of evils. 

Let those who multiply reflections on 
the so-called necessary immorality of cel- 
ibacy, bethink themselves likewise of 
computing the evils that flow from deter- 
mining on matrimony without inclination. 

To the brief follies of the wedding suc- 
ceed weariness, together with horror at 
being no longer free, with the discovery 
that the choice was precipitate, that the 
characters are ill-assorted. From recip- 
rocal complaints, or from those of either 
party, proceed rudeness, affronts, and 
daily cruel recriminations. The wife, 
being the more gentle and the more gen- 
erous of the two, becomes the victim of 
this unhappy disunion, suffers till she 
ceases to exist, or, what is still worse, 
changing her nature, renouncing her 
moral worth, she gives admittance to 



90 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

affections that seem to afford her a com- 
pensation for the absence of conjugal 
love, and yet only bring her shame and 
remorse. 

Of the children born of these ill- 
starred marriages, the first school is the 
unworthy conduct of father or mother, 
or of both parents. Thence it follows 
that those children are little, or injudi- 
ciously loved, imperfectly or badly edu- 
cated, without deference towards their 
parents, without tenderness towards their 
brothers, without any notions of domes- 
tic virtues, which form the basis of civil 
virtues. 

All these things are of such frequent 
occurrence that we have only to open 
our eyes to witness them. No one will 
tell me that I exaggerate. 

I do not deny the evils that result 
from celibacy ; but whosoever weighs in 
his mind those other evils, will not cer- 
tainly regard them as less weighty, and 
with me will say, of an infinity of mar- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 91 

ried persons, Oh, that they never pro- 
nounced that fatal vow ! 

The greater number of mortals are 
called to the married state, but celibacy 
is also in nature. To afflict ourselves, 
because all do not concur in multiplying 
their species, would be ridiculous. The 
state of celibacy, when chosen for solid 
reasons, and observed with honor, has 
in it nothing ignoble. On the contrary, 
it is deserving of our highest respect, as 
much so as any other species of reason- 
able sacrifice, accomplished with a laud- 
able intention. By not undertaking the 
care of a family, some have the more 
time and energy left to devote themselves 
to certain high studies and functions of 
religion ; others have the more means of 
sustaining families of their kindred who 
stand in need of their aid ; others, again, 
are left the more liberty of affection to 
bestow on numerous indigent objects. 
All this — is it well, or is it not so ? 

These reflections are not devoid of 



92 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

utility. In order to abandon the state 
of celibacy, or to embrace it, it is requi- 
site to know that which we embrace or 
abandon. Partial declamations overthrow 
the judgment. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ON HONOR PAID TO WOMEN. 

A vile and bantering cynicism is the 
genius of vulgarity, the satanic tempter, 
ever forging calumnies for mankind, in 
order to induce it to ridicule virtue and 
trample it under foot. He assembles all 
the facts that dishonor the altar, and, 
dissembling the opposite facts, he ex- 
claims, " What a God ! What beneficent 
influence of the priesthood and religious 
instruction ! Chimeras of fanatics ! " He 
collects together all such facts as dis- 
honor politics, and exclaims, "What 
laws! what civil order! what honor! 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 93 

what patriotism ! It is all a war of the 
crafty and the powerful, on the part of 
those who govern, or who aspire to gov- 
ern, and imbecility on the side of those 
who obey ! " He collects all the facts 
that dishonor celibacy, marriage, pater- 
nity, maternity — the relations of son, of 
kinsman, of friend — and cries, with in- 
famous levity, "I have discovered that 
all is egotism, imposture, tumult of the 
senses, dislike, and mutual contempt!" 

And, precisely, fruits of this infernal 
and lying wisdom are, egotism, impos- 
ture, tumult of the senses, dislike, and 
reciprocal contempt. 

How could it be that the foul genius 
of vulgarity, which is the desecrator of 
everything worthy, should not be the 
enemy, in a supreme degree, of the virtue 
of woman, and not be anxious to abase 
her? 

In all ages he has been zealous to 
depict her as abject; to see nothing in 
her save envy, artifice, inconstancy, van- 



94 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

ity ; to deny in her the existence of the 
sacred fire of friendship, and the incor- 
ruptibility of love. Every woman pos- 
sessed of any degree of merit was con- 
sidered as an exception. 

But the generous tendencies of human- 
ity protected woman. Christianity ex- 
alted her, in prohibiting polygamy and 
unlawful love, and in offering, as the first 
of human creatures, after the Man-God, 
and superior to all the saints, and to the 
very angels themselves — a woman ! 

Modern society felt the influence of 
this spirit of refinement. In the midst 
of barbarism, chivalry was embellished 
by the elegant worship of love, and we 
civilized Christians, we sons of chivalry, 
regard as educated no man save him who 
honors the sex of gentleness, of graces, 
and of domestic virtues. 

Yet the ancient adversary of noble 
affections, and of woman, still exists in 
the world. Ah ! would that he had as 
followers none save unpolished minds, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 95 

save groveling souls ! But he depraves 
at times splendid spirits, and that depra- 
vation ever takes place where ceases reli- 
gion, the sole sanctifier of man ! 

There were to be seen philosophers — 
so at least they styled themselves — who, 
in some of their hours, showed them- 
selves burning with zeal for humanity, 
and in others, assailed by irreligion, dic- 
tating pages replete with obscenity, eager 
to provoke the intoxication of the senses 
by shameful poems and romances, by 
reasonings, by anecdotes, and fictions of 
all kinds. 

That most fascinating among literary 
men, Voltaire, (a spirit evincing some 
evidence of good qualities, though cor- 
rupted by base passions, and the mad, 
scurrilous desire of provoking merri- 
ment,) jocosely composed a long poem 
derisive of female honor, derisive of the 
most sublime heroine that her country 
had ever beheld, of the magnanimous 
and hapless Joan of Arc. Madame de 



96 ON TEE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Stael justly entitles that work " a crime 
of lesenation." 

From obscure, from celebrated men, 
from authors living and dead, from the 
very impudence of certain women, be- 
come unworthy of their modest sex ; in 
fine, from a thousand sources, will arise 
around you that genius of vulgarity that 
proclaims, " Contemn women !" 

Repel the infamous temptation, or you 
yourself, son of woman, would be con- 
temptible. Shun those who honor not 
their own mother in woman. Trample 
under foot, as preaching bad manners, 
such books as vilify her. Hold yourself 
worthy, by your noble esteem for femi- 
nine dignity, to protect her who gave you 
life, to protect your sisters, to protect, 
perhaps, one day, a being who will ac- 
quire the sacred title of mother of your 
sons. 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 97 

CHAPTEE XX. 

TEE DIGNITY OF LOVE. 

Honor woman, but dread the seduc- 
tions of her beauty, and, still more so, 
those of your own heart. . 

Happy you, if not attaching yourself 
ardently to any other saye her whom you 
will and can choose as the companion of 
your whole life. 

Hold your heart free from all bond of 
love, rather than give some woman of 
little worth empire over it. A man de- 
void of high sentiments might be happy 
with such, but you could not. You have 
need either of perpetual liberty, or of a 
companion corresponding to your gener- 
ous ideas of humanity, and especially of 
the female sex. 

She should be one of those elect souls 
that have an exalted comprehension of 
the beauty of religion and of love. Be- 
ware of picturing her to your fancy as 



98 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

thus perfect, while, in reality, she is far 
otherwise. 

If you should find her such, if you 
should see her, bejond a doubt, inflamed 
with the Divine love, susceptible of noble 
enthusiasm for every virtue, intent on 
effecting all the good within her reach, 
the irreconcilable enemy of all actions 
morally base, uniting to those merits cul- 
tivation of mind, without the least ambi- 
tion of display ; if, on the contrary, with 
all that mind, she is the humblest among 
women ; if all her words, all her actions, 
breathe goodness, elegant simplicity, ele- 
vation of sentiment, a firm will in the 
performance of duty, attention not to 
cause pain to any, to console the afflicted, 
to employ her powers of fascination in 
ennobling the thoughts of others, then, 
love her with a deep affection, with a 
love worthy of her ! 

Let her be to you as a tutelary angel, 
as the living expression of the Divine 
command, to keep you removed from al] 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 99 

baseness, to incite you to every noble 
work. In all your undertakings, think 
of meriting her approbation, think of so 
acting, as that her lovely soul may be 
content to have you for a friend ; think 
of honoring her, not before men, which 
is of little importance, but before the all- 
seeing eye of God. 

If this being should be endowed with 
a mind so elevated, so faithful to reli- 
gion, your great love for her will not be 
an excess, an idolatry. You will love 
her precisely because her will is in per- 
fect harmony with that of God ; in admi- 
ring the one you will admire the other, 
or, more properly speaking, you will 
revere in her the will of the Almighty ; 
so much so, that were it possible for her 
will to grow opposed to that of God, the 
delicious charm would be dispelled, you 
would no longer love her. 

This most noble of affections is re- 
garded as chimerical by many vulgar 
spirits, by those who have no just idea 



100 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

of a high-souled woman. Commisserate 
the mean wisdom of such. The exist- 
ence of such love, pure and prolific in 
all virtue, is possible ; it is to be found, 
yet rarely. And men should here ex- 
claim, " Oh for such like, else none what- 
soever !" 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

BL AM ABLE AMOURS. 

Yet be guarded, I repeat it, against 
imagining as a paragon of virtue a 
woman who is not such. That is pre- 
cisely what is called romantic love, a 
love ridiculous and prejudicial, an un- 
worthy immolation of the heart before 
a profane idol. 

That there exist women, estimable 
even in a high degree, I grant ; yes, even 
on earth. But there exist likewise, and 
in great numbers, those whom education. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 101 

tlie bad example of others, and their own 
weakness have spoiled; those who are 
not gifted with elevation of soul suffi- 
cient to appreciate the homage of the 
virtuous man; those who prefer to be 
courted for their beauty and the bril- 
liancy of their wit more than to merit 
being loved for the nobility of their sen- 
timents. 

But such faulty women are generally 
more dangerous, and still more so than 
those completely fallen. They captivate, 
not alone by their beauty and their 
studied arts, but frequently even by some 
virtue, by the hope they inspire that in 
them the good predominates over the 
evil. Cherish not this hope when you 
see in them much vanity and other grave 
defects. Be severe in judging them, yet 
not so as to speak evil of them, or to 
exaggerate their faults, but in order to 
fly from them in time, should you see 
the possibility of falling into some un- 
worthy snare. 



i 



102 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

The more prone you feel yourself by 
nature to love, and the more disposed to 
venerate the woman of merit, the more 
carefully you should guard yourself from 
being captivated by mediocre virtues in 
a female, so as to bestow on her the title 
of friend. 

Ill-mannered youths, and females re- 
sembling them, will mock at you, and 
call you proud, strange, hypocritical. It 
matters not ; scorn their opinion. Be 
neither proud, nor strange, nor hypocrit- 
ical ; and never fling away your affections. 
Be firm in holding your heart disen- 
gaged, and bestowing it on none save 
her who has a full right to your es- 
teem. 

Let him who loves a worthy woman 
not waste his time in courting her ser- 
vilely, in offering her the incense of flat- 
tery and vain sighs. She would not 
suffer such ; she would blush to have as 
a lover the man given to softness and 
sentimentality; she could alone appre- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 103 

ciate the friendship of him who is gifted 
with nobleness, with frankness, and who 
is less solicitous to speak to her of love 
than to please her by laudable principles 
and by laudable actions. 

The woman who tolerates the man 
chained a puerile slave at her feet, 
basely subject to her thousand caprices, 
only occupied with affected elegancies 
and amorous grimaces, gives a convinc- 
ing proof of entertaining no exalted idea 
either of him or of herself. And he who 
takes pleasure in such a life, he who 
loves without a noble aim, without that 
of becoming a better man, in rendering 
homage to an exalted virtue, that man 
is a miserable prodigal of mind and of 
heart, and it will be difficult to say if 
there may remain to him a remnant of 
energy to enable him ever to effect aught 
of good in the world. I speak not of 
women of degraded morals ; the honest 
man recoils from them ; not to shun them 
is the deepest disgrace. 



104 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

When a woman seems to merit your 
love, abandon not yourself to suspicions, 
to jealousies, or to the excessive preten- 
sion of being extravagantly idolized. 

Choose judiciously, and then love with- 
out tormenting j T ourself or the chosen 
one with tiresome extravagances, or trou- 
bling yourself should it happen that she 
is not blind to the amiability of others, 
and without exacting transports of ten- 
derness towards you. 

. Be devoted to her, from a sentiment 
of justice, in order to pay a tribute of 
admiration and refined homage to supe- 
rior merit, and to elevate yourself to a 
being who seems to you one of the no- 
blest order, and not that she may carry 
her love to a degree higher than she 
may well manifest to you. 

The jealous, those who are trans- 
ported with fury at not being sufficiently 
loved, are tyrants in the true sense of 
the word. In preference to becoming 
wicked for the sake of some gratifica- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 105 

tion, we should renounce that gratifica- 
tion ; rather than become tyrannical, or 
fall into an unworthy temptation, for the 
sake of love, renounce love. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

OF RESPECT TOWARDS SINGLE FEMALES 
AND WIVES OF OTHERS. 

Whether you continue to lead a single 
life, or engage in the^married state, con- 
ceive a high respect for the state of vir- 
ginity, and for that of marriage. 

Nothing can be more delicate than the 
innocence and the reputation of a young 
female. Do not permit yourself towards 
any single woman the least liberty, in 
word or in manner, calculated to give 
the slightest profanation to her thoughts, 
or disturbance to her heart. Do not 
allow yourself, either in her presence, 
when addressing her, or in her absence, 



106 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

any expression that might lead others to 
suspect her of levity of mind, or of being 
easily won. The least appearances suf- 
fice for lessening the consideration of 
an unmarried female, exciting calumny 
against her, and perhaps occasioning her 
disappointment in a matrimonial con- 
nection that might have rendered her 
happy. 

Should you feel your heart throb for 
a woman to whose hand you may not 
aspire, do not make your passion known 
to her ; but, on the contrary, use every 
means to conceal it. Knowing herself 
loved, she might grow enamored of you, 
and become the victim of an unhappy 
passion. 

Should you perceive you have won the 
heart of one whom you will not or can- 
not wed, have regard equally to pro- 
priety and her peace of mind, cease alto- 
gether seeing her. To feel pleasure in 
awaking in an unhappy, innocent being 
a delirium that can only bring her shame 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 107 

and affliction is the most criminal species 
of vanity. 

With married females be not less 
guarded. A mad passion, under the cir- 
cumstances, either on your part or on 
that of another party towards you, 
might prove to both the occasion of 
great misfortune, of great infamy. Tou 
would lose yourself les3 than the other ; 
but in reflecting how much a woman for- 
feits who exposes herself to incur her 
own contempt and that of her husband, 
in pondering all this, if you are endowed 
with generosity, tremble at her danger, 
leave her not an instant in peril, break 
the bonds of a love condemned by God 
and by the laws. Your heart and that 
of her you love will bleed at the separa- 
tion ; but it matters not. Virtue de- 
mands sacrifices. He who knows not 
how to perform them is a degraded 
being. 

Between a married female and a single 
man there can exist no blameless rela- 



108 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

tions of intimacy, save in an interchange 
of just esteem, founded on a conscious- 
ness of real virtue, founded on the per- 
suasion that on both sides there exists, 
stronger than any other affection, a solid 
love of duty. 

Abhor as the greatest of immoralities 
the thought of depriving a husband of 
the affections of his wife. Should he be 
worthy of her love, j^our perfidy is an 
atrocious action. Should he not be an 
estimable husband, his faults do not 
authorize you to degrade his unhappy 
partner. For the wife of an indifferent 
husband there remains no choice ; she 
should resign herself to tolerate him, to 
be faithful to him. He who, under pre- 
text of desiring to console her, draws her 
into a guilty intrigue, is a cruel egotist. 
Should he even be influenced by motives 
of compassion, that compassion is illu- 
sive, fatal, blamable ; in winning her 
affections you would cause her new un- 
happiness, you would add to her anguish 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 109 

at having an un amiable husband, that 
of hating him still more every day in 
loving you and exaggerating your worth ; 
you would, perhaps, add all the torments 
of the jealousy of her husband and all 
the agonizing consciousness within her, 
of culpability. The woman unhappily 
married can have no peace save in pre- 
serving herself from reproach. He who 
promises her any other, lies and leads 
her into sorrow. 

Regarding such women as you will 
esteem for their virtues, as well as with 
regard to unmarried females, be careful 
not to excite injurious suspicions against 
them by reason of your friendship for 
them. Be circumspect in your manner 
of speaking of them to men used to 
form unworthy, mean judgments. Those 
always regulate their suppositions accord- 
ing to the perversity of their own hearts. 
Unfaithful interpreters of that which is 
told them, they give an evil sense to the 

simplest discourses, to the most innocent 
10 



110 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

facts ; they imagine mystery where there 
exists none. There is no care too ex- 
cessive in order to preserve intact the 
fame of a woman. That fame, next to 
her intrinsic honor, is her greatest trea- 
sure. He who is not jealous of preserv- 
ing it, he who has the baseness to feel 
satisfaction in others suspecting some 
weakness on the part of a female toward 
him, is undoubtedly a wretch deserving 
of being expelled from all good society. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

MATRIMONY. 

Should the inclination of your heart 
and suitable circumstances determine 
you in favor of matrimony, go to the 
altar with holy thoughts, with a firm 
purpose of rendering her happy who 
confides to you the care of her existence, 
who renounces the name of her parents 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. Ill 

to assume yours, who prefers you to all 
she ever held dear, who hopes through 
you to give life to new beings endowed 
with intelligence, called to possess their 
Creator. 

Miserable proof of human inconstancy ! 
The greater number of marriages are 
influenced by love, are accompanied by 
solemn thoughts, are entered into with 
the full desire of blessing them till death ; 
and a year or two later, sometimes even 
after some few months, the married pair 
cease to love, and tolerate each other 
with difficulty. Thence ensue affronts 
and reciprocal reproaches, and a disre- 
gard on both sides to all manner of cour- 
tesy. Whence arises all this? In the 
first place, from the imperfect knowledge 
they he„ve had of each other previously 
to being wed. Proceed cautiously in 
your selection, assure yourself of the 
good qualities of her you love, or you 
are lost. In the next place, dislike pro- 
ceeds from cowardice in yielding to temp- 



112 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

tations of inconstancy, from inattention 
in saying daily within oneself, " That 
resolution I formed was a duty, and I 
desire to be firm in maintaining it." 

Here, as in every other circumstance 
of life, observe that in mankind great is 
the facility of growing evil, that that 
which renders a man contemptible is 
nothing else than the want of a strong 
will, that that which occasions society to 
overflow with turpitude and wickedness 
is the absence of firmness of character. 

A marriage can alone be happy on 
these conditions, namely, that each party 
should, as a first duty, adopt this unal- 
terable resolution : "I agree to love and 
honor for ever the heart to which I have 
given the mastery over mine." 

Should the choice have been good, if 
either of the hearts be not perverse, it is 
not possible that it can be perverted and 
grow ungrateful when the other lavishes 
on it sweet attentions and generous love. 

There was never to be seen a husband 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 113 

who, if not guilty of unworthy roughness 
towards his wife, or at least of shameful 
negligence, or of some other vice, having 
been once dear to her, has ceased to 
be so. 

The soul of woman is naturally meek, 
grateful, inclined to love in a supreme 
degree the man who is constant in loviug 
her and meriting her esteem. But, as 
being extremely sensitive, she is easily 
provoked by the rudeness of a husband, 
and by all those faults that may degrade 
him ; and this indignation may drive her 
to invincible antipathy, and to all its 
consequent errors. The unhappy crea- 
ture will then be deeply culpable ; but 
assuredly the husband will be the first 
cause of her guilt. 

Indelible within your soul be this per- 
suasion : no woman who was good on 
her marriage day loses her good qualities 
with a man who continues to have a 
right to her affection. 

In order to have a right to the con- 



114 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

stant love of a woman, one should not 
diminish in worth in her eyes ; the con- 
jugal intimacy should not warrant the 
husband in dispensing himself in the 
least degree from the reverence and the 
courtesy he was wont to evince towards 
her before leading her to the altar ; he 
should not become to her ridiculously 
servile and incapable of correcting her, 
neither should he make her feel a des- 
potic authority, or correct her with asper- 
ity. She should have grounds whereon 
to base a high esteem of his sense and 
rectitude ; she should have reason to 
take pride in being his consort and de- 
pendant ; yet that dependence in which 
she stands towards him should not be 
imposed by his arrogance, but assumed 
by her out of affection, out of a senti- 
ment of his true dignhVy and of her own. 
However happy you should prove in 
your choice of a companion, let not that 
circumstance, nor the persuasion of the 
eminent virtues that adorn her, induce 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 115 

you to imagine it less necessary on your 
part to preserve an incessant attention 
to render yourself pleasing in her eyes, 
or to say, "She is so perfect that she 
pardons me all her wrongs ; I have no 
need to study to endear myself to her ; 
she loves me always equally well." 

How then ? Because her goodness is 
so great will you be the less industrious 
to please her? Delude not yourself. 
Precisely because she is endowed with 
an exquisite mind, carelessness, inele- 
gance, rudeness will be the more afflict- 
ing, the more revolting to her. The 
greater is the refinement of her manners 
and of her sentiments, the more she w T ill 
need to find the like qualities in you ; 
and if she finds them not, if she sees 
you pass from the alluring courtesy of a 
lover to the insulting carelessness of an 
indifferent husband, through a sentiment 
of virtue she will long force herself to 
love you, despite of your unworthiness. 
But the effort will be vain. She will 



116 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

pardon you, but she will no longer love 
you ; she will be unhappy. Woe then, 
if her virtue be not proof against every 
attack, if another man render himself 
pleasing to her! Her heart, by you 
not sufficiently appreciated, by you ill- 
guarded, may become the prey of a 
guilty passion, of a passion fatal to her 
peace, to your own, to that of the chil- 
dren ! 

Many husbands are placed in these 
circumstances, and the wives they exe- 
crate were once virtuous. The unhappy 
creatures erred because they were not 
loved. 

Having bestowed on a woman the 
sacred title of wife, you should devote 
yourself to her well-being, as she should 
devote herself to yours. But the obli- 
gation on your part is stronger, because 
she is the weaker of the two, and you, 
as being stronger, are the more obliged 
to afford her every good example, every 
aid. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 117 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

PATERNAL LOVE, LOVE TOWARDS INFANCY 
AND CHILDHOOD. 

To bestow good citizens on your coun-' 
try, to give to God spirits worthy of Him, 
will be your duty, should you be blessed 
with children. Sublime charge ! He 
who assumes it and betrays it is the 
greatest enemy of his country and of his 
God. 

The virtues of a father it is not need- 
ful to enumerate ; you will possess them 
all should you have been a worthy son 
and an amiable husband. Bad fathers 
have all been ungrateful sons and ignoble 
husbands. 

Tet, even previously to having issue, 
and should you never have any, human- 
ize your spirit by the sweet sentiment of 
paternal love. Every man should cher- 
ish it, in directing it towards all children, 
towards all young persons. 



118 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Consider this new portion of society 
with great affection, with great rever- 
ence. 

Every one who spurns, or unjustly 
afflicts childhood, if not perverse, be- 
comes so. The man who is not atten- 
tive to respect the innocence of a child 
of tender age, not to teach him evil him- 
self, and guard against others doing so ; 
not to inflame him with any other love, 
save that of virtue alone, may be the 
cause of that innocent child becoming 
a monster ! But why substitute words 
less powerful to those terrible and most 
holy ones pronounced by the adorable 
Friend of children ? " He who receives 
one of those little ones in My name, re- 
ceives Me. But he who will scandalize 
one of those little ones who believe in 
Me, it would be better for him if a mill- 
stone were hung about his neck, and he 
were cast into the depths of the sea!" 

All such as are many years younger 
than yourself, over whom, for that rea- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 119 

son, your word and example may be 
influential — consider as your children, 
treat them with that mixture of intelli- 
gence and zeal which is calculated to 
remove them from evil, and to impel 
them towards virtue. 

Childhood is, in its nature, imitative. 
If the adults that surround a child be 
pious, amiable, worthy, the child will 
love to become, and will become such. 
If the adults be irreligious, low-minded, 
ill-natured, the child will be, like them, 
evil. 

Appear likewise good in the society of 
children of tender years, and of young 
persons whom you do not often see, and 
with whom you will not have occasion 
to speak more than once in life ; say to 
them, should an occasion offer, a word 
fruitful in virtue. That word of yours, 
that becoming look, may withdraw them 
from a mean thought, may inspire them 
with the wish of meriting the esteem of 
good men. 



120 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Should a young man of great promise 
place his confidence in you, prove your- 
self a generous friend ; aid him with just 
and efficacious counsels, applaud him, 
but in his good actions alone ; but with- 
draw him, by unsparing condemnation, 
from all such as are unworthy. 

Should you see a young person in- 
clined to vice, though not in intimacy 
with him, disdain not, when an oppor- 
tunity offers, to extend a hand to him 
in order to save him. Sometimes a 
youth who is taking the evil way needs 
only an exclamation, a sign, to make 
him blush and return to the path of 
virtue. 

What will be the fitting moral educa- 
tion to bestow on your sons ? This you 
cannot understand unless your own has 
been perfect ; acquire such, and you will 
bestow it in equal measure. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 121 

CHAPTEE XXV. 

ON RICHES. 

Religion and philosophy laud poverty, 
when virtuous, and give it the preference 
infinitely before the feverish passion for 
riches. Nevertheless, they admit that a 
man may be rich, and have an equal 
merit with the best among the poor. 

To this end, he only needs not to be 
the slave of his riches ; not to procure 
them, nor to hold them, with the design 
of making an ill use of them ; but, on 
the contrary, to have no other desire 
than to employ them in the service of 
his fellow-men. 

Honor to all honorable human states, 
and consequently to that of the rich, 
provided they turn their prosperity to 
the advantage of the many, provided 
their splendor and their enjoyment ren- 
der them not indolent and proud. 

You, most probably, will continue in 
11 



122 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

the condition in which you were born, 
equally removed from great opulence as 
from poverty. Never give admittance to 
that mean sentiment of hatred towards 
the rich, that frequently corrodes the 
hearts of those who are less rich, and 
of the poor. It is a species of hatred 
that is wont to assume the gravity of 
philosophical language, in the shape 
of warm declamations against luxury, 
against the injustice of disproportionate 
fortunes, against the arrogance of the 
rich and powerful, and a thirst, ap- 
parently magnanimous, of establishing 
equality, and of succoring the many 
miseries of humanity. Let not all that 
delude you, though you may happen to 
hear it from individuals of some note, 
and read it in the pages of a hundred 
eloquent pedants, who purchase the ap- 
plause of the crowd by flattery. In 
these outbreaks there is more of envy, 
of ignorance, of calumny, than of zeal, 
of justice. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 123 

The inequality of fortunes is inevi- 
table ; from it result both good and evil. 
He who so deeply execrates the rich 
man would voluntarily take his place ; 
and, for like motives, the opulent man 
continues in his opulence. There are 
few rich who do not give circulation to 
their money, and in expending it become 
— all in a thousand different ways, with 
more or less merit, and likewise, at times, 
without any merit whatsoever — co-ope- 
rators in the public good. They give 
activity to commerce, to the refinement 
of taste, to emulation in the arts, to an 
infinitude of hopes in him who desires 
to fly poverty through means of indus- 
try. 

Not to be able to distinguish in them 
ought save idleness, luxury, inutility, is 
an absurd caricature. If gold renders 
some indolent, it urges others to worthy 
actions. There is not a civilized city 
in the world where the rich have not 
founded and maintained important insti- 



124 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

tutions of beneficence ; there is no place 
where they are not, both collectively and 
individually, the sustainers of the poor. 

Consequently, regard them without 
anger, without envy, and give not echo 
to the abuse lavished on them by the 
vulgar. Be neither disdainful nor abject 
towards them, as you would not desire 
that one less rich than yourself should 
be disdainful or abject towards you. 

Be wisely economical of the fortune 
you possess ; fly equally avarice, that 
renders the heart cruel and the intelli- 
gence bounded, and that prodigality that 
leads to shameful loans and blamable 
acts. 

To endeavor to augment one's riches 
is allowable, yet without sordid solici- 
tude, without immoderate disquietude, 
without ceasing to remember that real 
honor and - felicity do not depend on 
them, but on nobleness of soul before 
God, before our fellow-men. 

Should your prosperity increase, let 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 125 

your beneficence augment in the same 
proportion. The state of riches may 
agree with all the virtues ; but that of 
a rich egotist is real wickedness. He 
who has much should give much ; there 
is no exemption from such a sacred 
duty. 

Kef use not aid to the mendicant ; but 
let not this be your sole alms. A great 
and well-judged charity it is to provide 
for the poor a more honorable mode of 
living than mendicancy ;. that is to say, 
by affording to the various arts, both 
common and refined, labor and bread. 

Reflect at times, that unforseen events 
might strip you of the inheritance of 
your fathers, and reduce you to misery. 
Too many such vicissitudes occur under 
our eyes ; no rich man may say : " I 
shall not die in exile or in adversity ! " 

Enjoy your riches with that generous 
independence of them that the philoso- 
phers of the Church, with the Gospel, 
style poverty of spirit. 



126 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Voltaire, in his moments of scurrility, 
affected to believe that that poverty of 
spirit recommended by the Gospel meant 
stupidity. So far from that, it is the 
virtue of preserving, even in riches, a 
spirit humble, not averse to poverty, 
should it visit us ; not incapable of re- 
specting it in others — a virtue that 
demands something far different from 
stupidity ; a virtue that cannot originate 
from aught else but elevation of mind 
and wisdom. 

" Wouldst thou cultivate thy mind ? " 
says Seneca, "live poor, or as though 
thou wert so." 

Should you fall into misery, lose not 
courage ; struggle in order to live, and 
that without being ashamed. The needy 
man may be estimable, as much so as 
he who aids him. But then, learn to 
renounce with a good grace the habits 
of riches; offer not the ridiculous and 
miserable spectacle of a proud, indigent 
man, who will not acquire those virtues 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 127 

so well befitting the poor, namely, a dig- 
nified humility, a strict economy, an 
untiring patience in labor, an amiable 
serenity of mind, defying adversity. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

RESPECT TOWARDS MISFORTUNE.- BENEFI- 
CENCE. 

Honor to all honorable human condi- 
tions, and consequently to the poor, pro- 
vided they turn their ill-fortune to their 
own amelioration, provided they suppose 
not that their sufferings authorize them 
to be vicious and ill-minded. 

Nevertheless, be not harsh in judging 
them. Be compassionate, even towards 
such poor as at times give way to impa- 
tience and violence. Reflect that it is 
a cruel thing to suffer want in the public 
street, or in a miserable hut, while 
within a few paces of the suffering 



128 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

wretch pass men sumptuously fed and 
clothed. Pardon him, if he has the 
weakness to regard you with envy, and 
aid him in his want, because he is — 
man. 

Respect misfortune in all those who 
suffer from its stings, should they not 
even be sunk in absolute indigence, 
should they not even demand your aid. 

Let every one who lives deprived of 
comforts, and by his labor, in a position 
inferior to yours, be regarded by you 
with affectionate compassion. Do not, 
by the arrogance of your manner, make 
him feel the difference of your fortune. 
Humble him not by sharp words ; even 
when he displeases you by his coarse- 
ness or any other defect. 

Nothing is so consoling to the unfor- 
tunate man as to see himself treated 
with affectionate attention by his supe- 
riors. His heart is then filled with grati- 
tude ; he then understands why the rich 
jnan should be rich, and pardons him 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 129 

his prosperity, because lie deems him 
worth j of it. 

Masters who are disdainful and brutal 
are all generally hated, however well 
they may remunerate their domestics. 

To make yourself detested by your 
inferiors would be great immorality; in 
the first place, because thereby you be- 
come evil yourself; secondly, because, 
instead of alleviating their sufferings, 
you would increase them ; thirdly, be- 
cause you habituate them to serve you 
with disaffection, to abhor dependence, 
to execrate the whole class of those who 
are more fortunate than themselves. 
And since it is just that all should have 
as much happiness as may be possible, 
he who is elevated above the lower 
grades should take care that his infe- 
riors should not find their condition in- 
tolerable, but, on the contrary, love it, 
because not contemned, because endowed 
with decent comfort by the rich. 

Be liberal in affording all species of 



130 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

succor to such as may stand in need of 
it ; in money and in protection when in 
your power; in counsel when circum- 
stances so require ; in good manners and 
example at all times. 

But, above all, if you see oppressed 
merit, use all your endeavors to sustain 
it ; or, if unable to do so, try at least to 
console, to honor it. 

To blush, to evince esteem towards 
the upright man in his misfortune, is the 
greatest possible cowardice. Tou will 
find this too general ; be the more vigi- 
lant in not allowing yourself to be 
infected by this malady. 

"When any one is unfortunate, the 
greater number are disposed to throw 
blame on him, to suppose that his ene- 
mies have some reason for abusing and 
tormenting him. Should those have re- 
course to some calumny in order to jus- 
tify themselves and depreciate him, even 
should not that calumny have a shadow 
of probability, it fails not to be received 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 131 

and cruelly re-echoed. The small num- 
ber who endeavor to crush it are rarely 
listened to. It would seem as though 
the greater part of mankind are happy 
when they may believe in evil. 

Hold this wicked tendency in abhor- 
rence. Whenever you hear accusations, 
scorn not to listen to the defence, and 
even should there be no defence to be 
heard, be yourself generous enough to 
conjecture one. Believe not in guilt, 
unless when manifest ; but bear in mind 
that all who hate pretend that more than 
one fault is manifest which is not so. 
If you desire to be just, hate not ; the 
justice of haters is as the rage of the 
Pharisees. 

From the moment that misfortune has 
stricken any one, were he your enemy, 
were he the devastator of your country, 
to regard his misery with superb tri- 
umph would be an act of baseness. 
Speak of his transgressions, should the 
occasion so demand, but with less vehe- 



132 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

mence than in the time of his prosperity ; 
speak of them likewise with greater 
attention not to exaggerate them, not to 
separate them from the merits which 
were likewise conspicuous in that mortal. 

Pity towards the unfortunate, and even 
towards the guilty, is always a beautiful 
sentiment. The law may be justified in 
condemning them ; man has not the 
right to exult in their pains, or to depict 
them in colors blacker than the reality. 

The habit of pity will render you at 
times benignant towards the ungrateful. 
Yet, infer not thence, indignantly, that 
all are so : cease not to be beneficent. 
Amongst the many ungrateful is also to 
be found the grateful man who is worthy 
of your favors. Tou would not have 
bestowed on him these benefits, had you 
not lavished them on several. The bene- 
dictions of this one will compensate you 
for the ingratitude of the other ten. 

Moreover, should you never meet with 
thankfulness, the goodness of your heart 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 133 

will be your recompense. There is no 
greater sweetness than in being merciful, 
and in being the instrument o£ relieving 
the misfortune of others. This exceeds, 
by far, the satisfaction of receiving aid, 
since, in the latter case, there is no vir- 
tue, and in bestowing aid there is a great 
degree of merit. 

Be refined with all in affording relief, 
but more so with persons of some re- 
spectability, with timid and virtuous 
females, with such as are novices in the 
cruel apprenticeship of poverty, and fre- 
quently stifle their tears in secret, rather 
than pronounce the heart-rending words : 
" I am in want of bread." 

Besides that which you will bestow in 
private, without one hand knowing tuliat 
the other gives, as the Gospel says, con- 
cur likewise with other generous souls, 
in order to multiply the means of relief, 
found good institutions, and maintain 
such as are already established. 

It is a maxim of religion : Providentes 
12 



134 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

bona non tantum corum Deo, sed etiam 
comm omnibus liominibus. (Epist. Paul 
ad Born., c. xii.) " Be provident in doing 
good, not alone before God, but also 
before the eyes of men." 

There are good works which an indi- 
vidual cannot carry out alone, and which 
cannot be performed in secret. Favor 
societies of beneficence ; promote them 
should you have the means, excite them 
when torpid, reform them when cor- 
rupted. Be not deterred by the scoffs 
which the avaricious and the useless are 
ever wont to fling at those industrious 
souls who labor in the good of humanity. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

ESTEEM OF KNO W LEDGE. 

If your occupations and domestic 
cares should not leave you much time 
to devote to books, guard against the 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 135 

vulgar propensity common to those who 
have themselves nearly, or altogether, 
given over studying, namely, that of 
abhorring all knowledge they have not 
themselves acquired, of sneering at every 
one who attaches much importance to 
the cultivation of the mind, of desiring 
ignorance as a social good. 

Spurn false knowledge, which is hurt- 
ful ; but esteem the true, which is always 
useful. Appreciate it, whether you pos- 
sess it, or have not been enabled to 
attain it. 

Cherish an ardent desire, at all times, 
to make some progress yourself, either 
by continuing to devote yourself more 
particularly to some science, or, at least, 
by reading good books of various sorts. 
To a man of note, this exercise of the 
intellect is of importance, not alone from 
the real gratification and instruction he 
can derive from it, but for this reason 
likewise, that being reputed a cultivated 
man, and a friend of enlightenment, he 



136 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

will acquire the greater influence in in- 
citing others to the practice of good. 
Envy is too prone to discredit the up- 
right man ; if it have some reason or 
pretext to style him ignorant, or a favorer 
of ignorance, his very best works are 
regarded with an evil eye by the vulgar, 
depreciated, hindered, as far as may be. 

The cause of religion, of country, of 
honor, demands champions, strong, first, 
in virtuous intentions ; next, in knowl- 
edge and distinction of manner. Woe, 
when the wicked may say with reason to 
good men, "You have not studied, and 
you are incompetent." 

Yet, in order to obtain the reputation 
of wisdom, feign not knowledge that you 
possess not. All impostures are dis- 
graceful, and so, likewise, is the osten- 
tation of knowing that which we do not 
know. 

Moreover, there is no impostor whose 
mask does not directly fall off, and he is 
then lost. 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 137 

All that estimation in which knowledge 
is to be held should not, nevertheless, 
render ns its idolaters. Let us desire 
it in ourselves and in others. Tet, should 
our information be, of necessity, not pro- 
found, let us console ourselves, and can- 
didly appear such as w r e are. A variety 
of acquirements is good, but that which 
in the end is of the most value in man, 
is virtue, which, happily, is not incom- 
patible with a state of ignorance. 

Consequently, should you know much, 
do not for that reason despise the igno- 
rant. Knowledge is like riches, and is 
desirable, in order the better to assist 
others ; yet he who is not possessed of 
it, and has the ability, notwithstanding, 
to be a good citizen, has a right to 
respect. 

Diffuse enlightened thoughts among 
that class which is possessed of little edu- 
cation. But, what are these thoughts? 
Not such as are apt to render people 
pedantic, sententious, and malignant ; not 



138 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

the extravagant declamations that please 
so much in popular dramas and ro- 
mances, where those low in rank are 
always depicted as heroes, and the great 
as villains, in which the whole picture of 
society is falsified, so as to make it de- 
tested ; where the virtuous cobbler is he 
who speaks insolently to the noble; where 
the virtuous noble is he who weds the 
daughter of the cobbler ; where the very 
highwaymen are represented as admi- 
rable, so that he who admires them not 
may appear execrable. 

The enlightened thoughts proper to be 
diffused amongst the lower classes are 
such as may preserve them from error 
and exaggeration ; those which, without 
aiming at rendering them abject worship- 
pers of him who knows and can perform 
more than themselves, inspire them with 
a noble disposition to respect, to benevo- 
lence, and to gratitude ; those which 
keep them removed from the furious and 
wild ideas of anarchy and plebeian gov- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 139 

ernment ; those which teach them to per- 
form, with religious dignity, the obscure 
but honorable functions to which Provi- 
dence has called them ; those which per- 
suade them of the necessity of social 
inequalities, even though we be, if vir- 
tuous, all equal before God. 



CHAPTEB XXVIII. 

REFINEMENT OF MANNERS. 

Towards all those with whom you may 
happen to come in contact, behave wdth 
politeness, which, prescribing to you 
affectionate manners, will predispose you 
truly to love. He who assumes an aus- 
tere, suspicious, scornful mien, disposes 
himself to malevolent sentiments. 

Consequently, discourtesy produces two 
great evils ; that of degrading the mind 
of him who evinces it, and that of irri- 
tating or afflicting others. 



140 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

But study not alone to be refined in 
manner ; be careful to give refinement to 
all your thoughts, to all your desires, to 
all your affections. 

The man who is inattentive to banish 
from his mind all grovelling ideas, who 
entertains such frequently, is often drawn 
b}' them into blamable actions. 

We hear even men who do not belong 
to the lower grades indulge in coarse 
jests and impure language. Follow not 
their example. Let your discourse be 
free from studied elegance, but let it be 
exempt from all disgraceful vulgarity, 
from all those unmeaning exclamations 
wdth which the uneducated intersperse 
their conversation, from all those scur- 
rilous jokes with which too many are 
wont to outrage good breeding. 

But you should commence from j^outh 
to resolve to acquire beauty of language. 
He who possesses it not before the age 
of twenty-five never attains it. Not stud- 
ied elegance, I repeat, but words noble, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 141 

becoming, infusing into others tranquil 
joy, consolation, benevolence, desire of 
virtue. 

Take care that your conversation be 
pleasing, by the happy choice of expres- 
sions, and by the fitting modulation of 
the voice. He who speaks kindly allures 
his listeners, and, consequently, when it 
is necessary to persuade them to the 
practice of good or remove them from 
evil, he will have the greater influence 
over them. 

We are bound in duty to improve all 
those means which God has bestowed on 
us, to serve our fellow-men, and conse- 
quently, in equal measure, the medium 
of expressing our thoughts. 

Excessive inelegance in speaking, in 
reading a composition, in presenting, in 
comporting oneself, usually proceeds less 
from inability to do better than from 
shameful indolence, from voluntary inat- 
tention to the due improvement of oneself, 
and to that respect one owes to others. 



142 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Yet, while you make elegance obliga- 
tory on yourself, and bear in mind that 
it is a duty, for this reason, that we 
should act so that our presence be not 
a calamity for any, but, on the contrary, 
a pleasure and a benefit — at the same 
time be not indignant against the unpol- 
ished. Reflect that at times gems are 
encased in mud. It would be better did 
the mud not clog them ; nevertheless, in 
that humiliation, they are still gems. 

It is a great part of politeness to tol- 
erate with indefatigable smile such like 
people, not less than the interminable 
array of bores and of fools. When no 
occasion offers to serve them it is allow- 
able to avoid them, but never in such a 
way as that they may perceive they are 
disagreeable to you. They would be 
pained thereby, or else detest you. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 143 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

GRATITUDE. 

If we are bound to pious sentiments 
and benevolent manners towards all, how 
much more so towards those generous 
beings who gave us proofs of their love, 
of their compassion, of their indulgence ! 

Commencing from our parents, let 
there be no one who, having afforded us 
some liberal aid by deed or by counsel, 
:tnay find us unmindful of his benefits. 

Towards others we may be sometimes 
rigid in our judgments, and sparing in 
politeness, without being much in fault; 
towards him who has rendered us service 
it is never allowable to relax in our unre- 
mitting attention, not to offend him, not 
to cause him any affliction, not to lessen 
his fame, and to show ourselves most 
ready to defend, to console him. 

It happens that many, when a bene- 
factor makes, or seems to make, too high 



144 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

an estimate of his services in their re- 
gard, grow irritated, as at some unpar- 
donable pretension, and assume that they 
are thereby dispersed from all obligation 
of gratitude. There are many persons 
who, because they have the cowardice 
to blush at the benefit received, are inge- 
nious in supposing it influenced by inter- 
est, by ostentation, or by some other 
unworthy motive, and thence imagine an 
excuse for their ingratitude. There are 
likewise several who, when possessed of 
the means, hasten to repay a service, so 
as to be freed from the debt of gratitude, 
and that discharged, they believe them- 
selves blameless in forgetting all the obli- 
gations it imposed. 

Vain is all the ingenuity used in justi- 
fying ingratitude ; the ungrateful man is 
a base being, and in order to avoid that 
baseness, gratitude must not be parsi- 
monious — it must absolutely be profuse. 

Should your benefactor grow haughty 
by reason of the advantages he has pro- 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 145 

cured you, should lie be wanting towards 
you in that refined tact you might desire, 
should it not appear perfectly evident 
that the motive that actuated him in 
serving you was pure generosity, never- 
theless it becomes not you to condemn 
him. Draw a veil over his real or pos- 
sible injustice, and regard only the ser- 
vice he has rendered j'ou ; regard that 
service, even if you should have repaid 
it — repaid it two thousand fold. 

Sometimes it is allowable to be grate- 
ful without publishing the favor received ; 
yet, each time that conscience dictates to 
you a reason for publishing it, let no 
mean sentiment of shame restrain you} 
acknowledge yourself indebted to the 
friendly hand that came to your aid. To 
thank without a witness is often an in- 
gratitude, says that excellent moralist, 
Blanchard. 

He alone who is grateful for all favors 

(even for lesser ones) is really good. 

Gratitude is the soul of religion, of filial 
13 



146 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

love, of love towards those who love us, 
of love towards human society, from 
which we derive so much protection, so 
much gratification. 

In cultivating gratitude for all that 
good we receive from God and from men, 
we acquire greater strength, greater tran- 
quillity, in order to tolerate the ills of 
life, and a greater disposition to be indul- 
gent, and to labor in aid of our brother 
man. 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

HUMILITY, MEEKNESS, PARDON 

Pride and anger agree not with ele- 
gance, and, consequently, he is not ele- 
gant who is not wont to be humble and 
meek. "If there be a sentiment which 
counteracts the insulting contempt of 
others, it is assuredly humility. Con- 
tempt proceeds from the comparison 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 147 

made with others, and the preference 
given to self. Now, how can this senti- 
ment ever take root in the heart edu- 
cated to consider and deplore its own 
miseries, to regard all its merit as pro- 
ceeding from God, to acknowledge that 
if God did not restrain it, it would be 
capable of all evil?" (See Manzoni in 
his excellent work, " Catholic Morality.") 

Restrain continually your indignation, 
else you will become sharp and proud. 
If a just indignation be opportune, it is 
a rare occurrence. He who finds him- 
self thus justified every instant, covers 
his own malignity beneath a mask of 
zeal. 

This failing is fearfully t common. 
Speak with twenty men, one after the 
other, you will find nineteen of the num- 
ber, each of whom will solace himself in 
detailing to you the generous pretexts of 
his rage against one person or another. 
All seem burning with indignation against 
iniquity, as though they were the sole 



148 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

just men in the world. The country in 
which they dwell is always the worst on 
earth, the years in which they live are 
always the saddest, the institutions not 
originating from them are always the 
worst, he whom they hear speak of reli- 
gion and morality is always an impostor ; 
does a rich man not lavish his gold, he is 
sure to be a miser; does a poor man 
suffer and demand aid, he is always a 
prodigal ; do they themselves happen to 
have rendered service to any one, the 
individual is sure to be an ungrateful 
man. To execrate all the members of 
society, in excepting, through politeness, 
some few friends, appears in general to. 
be an inestimable satisfaction. 

And what is still worse, that indigna- 
tion, now launched against those who 
are far distant, again turned against 
near neighbors, is wont to please whom- 
soever is not its immediate object. The 
enraged and satirical man is readily 
taken for a generous being, who, if a 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 149 

ruler of the world, would be a hero. 
The meek man, on the other hand, is wont 
to be regarded with contemptuous pity, 
as a weak-minded or cowardly wretch. 

The virtues of humility and meekness 
are not glorious ; but adhere to them, for 
they are above the price of all glory. 
The universal display of indignation and 
of pride tends alone to prove the general 
scarcity of love and of true generosity, 
and the universal ambition of appearing 
better than others. 

Determine on being humble and meek, 
but know how to make it appear that 
you act neither out of imbecility nor 
cowardice. By what means? In losing 
patience at times, and showing your teeth 
to the wicked? In abusing, in speaking 
or in writing, him who, by either of these 
means, calumniates you ? No ; disdain 
to reply to your defamers, and, excepting 
under particular circumstances, which it 
is impossible to determine, lose not pa- 
tience with the wicked, threaten them 



150 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

not, revile them not. Meekness, when 
a virtue, proceeds not from deficiency of 
energetic feeling; it is always in the 
right. It humbles the pride of the other 
party more effectually than could the 
most astounding eloquence of anger and 
of scorn. 

Prove at the. same time that your 
meekness is neither cowardly nor weak ; 
in maintaining a dignified mien with the 
wicked, in not applauding their iniquities, 
in not canvassing their suffrages, in not 
departing from the principles of religion 
and of honor in the apprehension of 
their blame. 

Accustom yourself to the idea of hav- 
ing enemies, yet be not disturbed thereby. 
There is no one, however beneficent, sin- 
cere, and inoffensive may be his life, who 
does not count several. Envy is so con- 
genial to some wicked persons that they 
cannot be at rest without heaping scorn 
and false accusations on whomsoever 
enjoys any degree of reputation. 



ON THE DUTIES OE YOUNG MEN. 151 

Have the courage to be meek, and par- 
don from your heart those unhappy 
beings who injure or are willing to injure 
you. Pardon, not seven times, says the 
Redeemer, but seventy times seven ; that 
is to say, without limit. 

Duels and all species of vengeance are 
an unworthy delirium. Rancor is a mix- 
ture of pride and of meanness. In par- 
doning an injury received an enemy may 
be converted into a friend, and a per- 
verse man be reclaimed to noble senti- 
ments. Oh how lovely and consoling is 
this triumph ! How much it surpasses 
in grandeur all the horrible victories of 
vengeance ! 

Should one who offended you, and 
whom you have pardoned, have been 
irreconcilable, and lived and died insult- 
ing you, what have you lost in being 
good ? Have you not acquired the 
greatest of joys, that of remaining mag- 
nanimous ? 



152 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

CHAPTEE XXXI. 

COURAGE. 

Courage at all times ! Without this 
condition there is no virtue. Courage to 
vanquish your egotism and become be- 
neficent ; courage to conquer your indo- 
lence, and progress in all your honorable 
studies ; courage to defend your country, 
and to protect on every occasion your 
brother man; courage to resist evil ex- 
ample and unjust derision ; courage to 
suffer sickness, want, and anguish of 
every species without cowardly lamenta- 
tions ; courage to aspire to a perfection 
which it is not possible to attain on earth, 
but to which, if we aspire not, according 
to the sublime doctrine of the Gospel, 
we shall lose all nobility. 

However dear to you may be patri- 
mony, honor, life, be ready at all times 
to sacrifice all to duty, should it so re- 
quire. Either this abnegation of self, 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 153 

this renunciation of all earthly advan- 
tage, rather than preserve it in becoming 
iniquitous ; otherwise, man not alone is 
not a hero, but he may become a mon- 
ster ! " Nemo enim Justus esse potest, 
qui mortem, qui dolorem, qui exilium, 
qui egestatem timet, aut qui ea quae his 
sunt contraria, acquitate anteponit." (Cic. 
De Off, L. 11, c. 9.) 

To live with a heart disengaged from 
all perishable prosperity seems to some 
an intimation too strange and impracti- 
cable. Nevertheless, it is true that with- 
out a tiniely indifference to such prosper- 
ity, we know not either to live or to die 
worthily. 

Courage should exalt the mind so as 
to adopt every virtue ; but be careful 
that it degenerate not into pride and 
ferocity. 

They who think, or affect to think, that 
courage is incompatible with meek senti- 
ments, they who habituate themselves to 
the menaces of a Eodomont, to broils, 



154: ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

to thirst of disorder and bloodshed, 
abuse the strength of their will, and the 
force of their arm, which God has be- 
stowed on them, in order to be useful 
and exemplary to society. Those are 
usually the least courageous in circum- 
stances of great danger; to save them- 
selves they would betray father and 
brothers. The first to desert from an 
army are those who jeer at the pale 
faces of their companions, and shame- 
fully insult the enemy. 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

EXALTED IDEA OF LIFE, AND STRENGTH OF 
MIND TO MEET DEATH. 

Many books treat of our moral obliga- 
tions in a manner more extensive and 
more splendid; my sole pretension, my 
, young friend, was to offer you a manual 
constituting for you a brief record of all. 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 155 

I shall only add: Let us not be 
daunted by the weight of the obligations 
which are insupportable alone to the 
slothful. Let us be of good will, and we 
shall discern in each duty a mysterious 
beauty inviting us to love it, we shall 
feel an admirable power augmenting our 
force in proportion as w T e ascend in the 
arduous way of virtue ; we shall find 
that man is vastly more than that which 
he seems to be, provided that he will, 
firmly will, to compass the noble end of 
his destiny, which is to purify himself 
from all base tendencies, to cultivate in 
the highest degree those of a superior 
order, to elevate himself by these means 
to the immortal possession of God. 

Love your life, but not for vulgar pleas- 
ures and for miserable pursuits of am- 
bition. Love it for that which it has of 
important, of grand, of Divine ! Love it 
because it is the arena of merit, and is 
dear to the Omnipotent, glorious to Him, 
glorious and necessary to us! Love it 



156 ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG " MEN. 

despite of its pains, and even for its very 
pains; since it is these which ennoble it; 
it is these which are the cause of the 
germination, the growth, the develop- 
ment of all generous thoughts, all gener- 
ous inclinations within the mind of man ! 

Bear in mind that this life, to which 
you owe such a great degree of esteem, 
was given you but for a short space. 
Dissipate it not in superfluous diversions. 
Concede to recreation that which is re- 
quisite for your health and the comfort 
of others ; or, rather, let your enjoyment 
consist chiefly in meritorious works ; that 
is to say, in serving your fellow-men in a 
spirit of magnanimous fraternity, in serv- 
ing God with filial love and obedience. 

To conclude. "While thus esteeming 
life, think of the tomb which awaits you. 
To dissemble to ourselves the necessity 
of dying is a weakness that lessens our 
zeal for good. Hasten not by your own 
fault that solemn moment, yet desire not 
to retard it through cowardice. Expose 



ON THE DUTIES OF YOUNG MEN. 157 

your life, if necessary, for the safety of 
others, but chiefly for that of your coun- 
try. Whatever species of death may be 
reserved for you, be ready to accept it 
with dignified fortitude, and to sanctify it 
with all the sincerity and the energy of 
faith. 

In observing all these things you will 
be a man and a citizen in the most sub- 
lime signification of these words ; you 
will be useful to society, and will render 
yourself happy. 



15 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN". 



By LACOKDAIBE. 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 



i. 

HUMILITY. 



Flayigny, July 29, 1850. 
My Dear Friend : 

The consciousness of all the pride 
which is within you, and of the pain it 
gives to others, is a great step forward. 
There is nothing more hateful nor more 
hated than pride, when shown exteriorly ; 
hence, modesty is the first element of 
real politeness. The Christian, must, 
however, aim higher. Even when mod- 
esty is genuine, that is, when it is the 
fruit of a real desire to please others, it 
is but a veil thrown over pride, in order 
to spare the sight of it to those with 
whom we live. The Christian must be 



162 LETTEKS TO YOUNG MEN. 

humble ; and humility does not consist 
in hiding our talents and virtues, but in 
the clear knowledge of all that is want- 
ing to us, in not being elated by what 
we have, since it is a free gift of God, 
and even with all His gifts, we are still 
infinitely little. It is a remarkable fact 
that great virtue necessarily begets hu- 
mility, and that if great talent does not 
always produce the same effect, still it 
softens down a great deal of the uneven- 
ness which the pride of second-rate men 
is continually throwing into relief. Real 
excellence and humility are consequently 
not incompatible one with the other ; on 
the contrary, they are twin sisters. God, 
who is excellence itself, is without pride. 
He sees Himself as He is, without, how- 
ever, despising what is not Himself. He 
is Himself, naturally and simply, with a 
leaning for all His creatures, however 
humble. Goodness and humility are 
almost one and the same thing. 

The kind hearted feel themselves natu- 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 163 

rally drawn to give themselves, to sac- 
rifice themselves, to make themselves 
cheap ; and this is humility. Pride is 
more hated than any other vice, not only 
because it wounds our self-love, but be- 
cause it testifies to a want of that good- 
ness without which it is impossible to 
win love. Be therefore kind hearted, 
and you will infallibly become humble. 
Your eyes, your lips, the lines of your 
forehead, all will get quite another look, 
and you will find that you will be sought 
after quite as much as you were shunned. 
But, how become kind hearted ? Alas ! 
first of all, by begging it earnestly and 
unceasingly of God, and then by endeav- 
oring on every occasion to consult the 
pleasure of others, and sacrifice our own 
to them. It is a lengthy apprenticeship, 
but will carries a man through every- 
thing. 



164 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

II. 

FEMALE SOCIETY. 

Paris, June 12, 1851. 
Touching your relations with the per- 
sons of whom you speak, I have nothing 
to say except that you should be ex- 
tremely prudent, but without any affec- 
tation. Wherever there are women there 
are perils for the heart. Avoid every- 
thing which you could not do and say 
before witnesses. This is the great rule, 
and by it duty and peace are alike safe- 
guarded. Avoid, as far as possible, con- 
versations at which the whole family is 
not present ; when they are all together, 
one is always safe. I am well aware 
that in your case nothing grave is to be 
feared, since you are in a house where 
all is honor and edification; but some- 
times security itself is a peril, because 
the very innocence of all that surrounds 
us makes us less watchful over our 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 165 

hearts, I easily understand, my dear 
friend, the difficulty you find in prayer, 
and in your relations with God. A 
happy and comfortable life readily pro- 
duces this listlessness of soul. We enjoy 
ourselves innocently, and yet, little by 
little, the spring gets weak, prayer be- 
comes irksome, mortification is lost sight 
of; we get into a negative state wdth 
regard to God, which deprives us of the 
joys of conscious love. The only cure 
I can see for this is to give God certain 
regular moments daily, to bind one's 
self down to certain exterior acts, which 
may withdraw us, from time to time, 
from our insensibility. If meditation is 
hard, spiritual reading might be useful 
to you. In short, my dear friend, what- 
ever you do, let it be done earnestly and 
perseveringly. 



166 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

III. 

MODEBA TIOJS T JJST WOEK.-FLA VIGNY. 

Flayigny, May 31, 1851. 
I was unwilling to scold you for the 
sore throat you caught through your own 
fault, and which is now far away ; but I 
will scold you for the doubts these little 
accidents give you touching your voca- 
tion. If you had seen me at your own 
age, you would never have thought I 
could live. I was thin and pale ; my 
color came and went at every turn; I 
could not walk for a quarter of an hour 
in the streets of Paris without feeling 
extreme and painful fatigue ; and yet, 
to-day no one can enjoy sounder or 
brisker health. Time and sobriety of 
living have strengthened everything in 
me ; head, chest, muscles. The same 
will be the case with you, if you do not 
keep too late hours, and are careful not 
to work too hard. I say nothing of the 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 167 

rest, because you are a good, pious young 
man, and your only enemy is excess of 
intellectual activity. Two of my friends, 
one at fifty, the other at forty, have be- 
come infirm on account of over-study. 
Don't you do the same. Give Time his 
rightful due, as he will not let offenders 
off unpunished. What should I have 
gained to-day by having half killed my- 
self for the sake of doing things quickly ? 
Go to work gently, and be convinced 
that your larynx and everything else will 
become the very humble servants of your 
good desires. Besides, my dear friend, 
however precious health may be, it is 
not Hercules who does the most ; a gen- 
erous soul in a poor little body is mis- 
tress of the world. 

I am making great preparations for 
your reception. We have at Flavigny a 
little wood at the foot of a long terrace, 
formerly the rampart of the town. A 
part of the little wood ran along the 
high-road, without any kind of enclosure. 



168 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

We have had the edge of it made steep ; 
it is composed of very hard and toler- 
ably high rock, and by means of a little 
walling we have succeeded in shutting 
ourselves up at home. We have also 
finished making paths in the interior of 
the wood, and everything has become 
quite worth your seeing, and very desir- 
ous of seeing you. 

Stone benches, slightly rustic, have 
been put up and down, but in the shade, 
under rocks, so that you may sit down 
there when you are tired, and meditate 
quietly in gentle breezes which gather 
up the perfumes of our trees on their 
way. 

I am ornamenting the house to the 
best of my power, but in a simple and 
natural manner. The workmen are very 
glad of the few days' work it gives them. 
It is the duty of every proprietor to 
give work according to the extent of 
his property, and religious are more 
strictly bound to do this than others, 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 169 

because they ought to be more chari- 
table. A man finds in the heart of the 
poor what he does not find in his own 
purse. 

I wish you a good "Whitsuntide. May 
God make you gentle and humble, and 
may He keep me the share I have in 
your heart, and for which you have a 
great. re turn! 



IV. 

UPON STEADFASTNESS IN CONVICTION. 

Flavigny, March 22, 1853. 
The news you give me of M. Ozanam 
is a source of great affliction to me. He 
will be a very painful loss to the Cath- 
olics of France, and to me in particular. 
He belonged to the few eminent men 
who, in France, have, despite public 
vicissitudes, held by old and honorable 
convictions. His loss will go to thin 

ranks already scant, but he will leave 
14 



170 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

tliem in a memory like his life, pure. 
You must not despair, my dear child, 
because the battalion of disinterested 
and faithful souls is so small in this 
world, even among those who have a 
common faith in God and in His Christ. 
This has ever been and ever will be the 
case until the end. The majority of men 
are weak and vacillating ; they yield to 
the current which, at a given moment, 
sweeps over and carries away the world. 
Unshaken convictions dwell only in pro- 
found minds, and in hearts finely tem- 
pered by the hand of God. Do we 
belong to these latter ? God only knows. 
But however great our obligation of 
judging ourselves diffidently, we must 
at least aim at one thing, namely, to 
become men of strong, pure, and disin- 
terested convictions, and frequently call 
to mind the beautiful saying of St. Paul : 
" Our glory is this, that we have con- 
versed in this world in simplicity of 
heart and in the sincerity of God." You 



LETTERS TO YO][JNG MEN. 171 

are young ; you will see more uplifting 
and clownfalling than I shall see hence- 
forth. Nerve yourself against these 
shocks, and know, my child, that the 
surest way to be invariably consistent 
is to shun ambition, and that a man is 
not ambitious when he knows how to 
circumscribe his tastes, and to seek his 
happiness in God, in study, and in a few 
souls which love him. I belong to the 
latter as regards you. But not being of 
your age, you will lose me before the 
end of your perils. May my memory 
afford you a little light from afar ! 



V. 

BAD BOOKS.- SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS. 

Flavigny, June 30, 1853. 
My Dear Friend : 

Since the receipt of your dear and 
kind letter I have made a journey to 
Oullins and Chalais. We left Oullins 



172 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

with fifteen of our pupils, and crossed 
from Chalais to the Grande-Chartreuse, 
a magnificent series of mountains and 
valleys unknown and unfrequented ex- 
cept by cows, wood-cutters, and forest 
keepers ; for the sake of accuracy, let 
me add, by the smugglers between 
France and Savoy. Every one goes to 
the Grande-Chartreuse by the two roads 
from Saint-Laurent-du-Pont and le Sap- 
pey, no one by the mysterious diagonal 
w r hich cuts from Chalais across preci- 
pices, solitudes, magic sites, valleys 
dotted with meadows, and pine -clad 
rocks. I hope you will one day make 
this excursion with me. It is very dif- 
ferent from Flavigny and its tiny woods, 
which still pleased you somewhat, and 
which I am about to leave for Mattain- 
court, in Lorraine, where I am to preach 
the panegyric of the Blessed Peter Fou- 
rier, before I don't know how many bish- 
ops and a crowd of pilgrims. I intend 
publishing this discourse, and will send 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 173 

you a copy, however unworthy it be of 
your illustrious attention. 

*I am not overpleased at the idea of 
your reading such books as those you 
mention to me. You are, it is true, no 
longer a child ; but at every time of life 
poison is dangerous. What is there to 
read in Voltaire after his dramatic works ? 
His Contes, his Dictionnaire Philosoph- 
ique, his Essai sur les Moeurs des Na- 
tions, and that multitude of nameless 
pamphlets launched at every turn against 
the Gospel and the Church? Twenty 
pages enable us to judge of their literary 
worth and of their moral and philosoph- 
ical poverty. I was between seventeen 
and eighteen when I read that series of 
mental debauchery, and I have never 
since been tempted to open a single vol- 
ume, not because I was afraid of their 
doing me harm, but from a deep convic- 
tion of their worthlessness. Unless it 
be for purposes of reference with a use- 
ful end, we must confine ourselves to the 



174 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

masterpieces of great names; we have 
not time enough, for the rest. 

"We have, consequently, still less for 
those writings which are, as it were, the 
common sewers of the human intellect, 
and which, notwithstanding their flowers, 
contain nothing but frightful corruption. 
Just as a good man shuns the conversa- 
tion of lost women and of dishonorable 
men, so a Christian ought to avoid, read- 
ing works which have never done any- 
thing but harm to the human race. 
Rousseau is preferable to Yoltaire ; he 
has the sentiment of the beautiful and 
generous, and he does not despise his 
reader. But the charm of his writings, 
useful betimes to young men who respect 
nothing, is but little to a soul which pos- 
sesses the knowledge and love of Jesus 
Christ. We read in the Life of St. Je- 
rome that he was scourged by an angel, 
who, whilst striking him, reproached him 
for reading Cicero with more ardor than 
the Gospel. How much more, would 



LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 175 

your reading deserve this chastisement 
if God always showed us in this life 
what He thinks of our actions. 



VI. 

BAD COMPAXY. 

Soreze, May 8, 1860. 
My Dear Friend : 

Your letter brought me two pieces of 
good news. The first is your having 
broken with some of your former com- 
panions, whose conversation was not 
strictly moral. I cannot sufficiently con- 
gratulate you upon this resolution. For, 
believe me, all our life depends upon the 
persons with whom we five on terms of 
familiarity. Familiarity gets us used to 
things as well as to persons, and what at 
first appeared to us odious and abject, 
ends bj r entering into our habits. The 
ear loses its delicacy, the heart its mod- 
esty, the mind its clearness ; we end by 



176 LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN. 

taking to what once appeared repulsive, 
and from words we proceed to acts, 
which complete our corruption. This is 
the history of the propagation of evil 
upon earth. I am, then, delighted at 
your having broken with those young 
men, and that you have found others 
more worthy of you. Be convinced, you 
do not require much to distract you plea- 
santly. If one real friend is enough, a 
few comrades are enough too. Besides, 
good company begets good company ; 
and although less numerous than bad, it 
also, thank God, may be found in some 
strength. Thank you for your portrait, 
It will remind me of the time of your 
first youth, and will not grow old like 
ourselves. 

Adieu. I expect you soon. I repeat 
to you beforehand all that I am to you. 



THE END. 



£s 



